How to Use tuatara in a Sentence

tuatara

noun
  • Today, the order of Rhynchocephalia has just one living species, the tuatara.
    — New Atlas, 15 Sep. 2025
  • The tuatara is a charismatic medium-size reptile with a Muppet-like face and a row of spines running down its back.
    — Elizabeth Preston, Scientific American, 16 Dec. 2025
  • The tuataras, a New Zealand reptile, can live to be 100, as can a crocodile.
    — B. R. Cohen, Longreads, 13 Jan. 2026
  • Modern lizards and snakes share this feature, while the tuatara has retained the older condition of a complete bar, making its skull stronger but less mobile.
    — New Atlas, 15 Sep. 2025
  • Commonly featured in Maori stories, tuatara may signify knowledge or warn of a coming calamity.
    — Elizabeth Preston, Scientific American, 16 Dec. 2025
  • The ancient creature likely used large, triangular teeth to pierce the hard exoskeletons of insects, similar to how the modern tuatara eats.
    — Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 10 Sep. 2025
  • And its distinct features show why the suborder Lepidosauria – which today includes lizards, snakes and the tuatara – went on to become so successful.
    — New Atlas, 15 Sep. 2025
  • That conservative strategy may explain why the tuatara survived in isolation, even as most of its rhynchocephalian relatives vanished.
    — New Atlas, 15 Sep. 2025
  • Predators introduced by waves of human settlers have eliminated tuatara in much of their original habitat, which once spanned all of mainland New Zealand.
    — Elizabeth Preston, Scientific American, 16 Dec. 2025
  • Lizards, snakes, and the tuatara (collectively known as lepidosaurs) boast over 12,000 species, outnumbering both birds and mammals.
    — Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 10 Sep. 2025
  • The animal turned out to be a lepidosaur – a member of the reptile group that today includes lizards, snakes and New Zealand's native tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus), and which has since diversified into more than 12,000 living species.
    — New Atlas, 15 Sep. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tuatara.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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