Editing Tuatara (section)

===Species===
While there is currently considered to be only one living species of tuatara, two species were previously identified: ''Sphenodon punctatus'', or northern tuatara, and the much rarer ''Sphenodon guntheri'', or Brothers Island tuatara, which is confined to [[The Brothers (New Zealand)|North Brother Island]] in the [[Cook Strait]].<ref name="BBC">{{cite web |title=Tuatara – ''Sphenodon punctatus'' |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/wildfacts/factfiles/3052.shtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050828031645/http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/wildfacts/factfiles/3052.shtml |archive-date=28 August 2005 |access-date=28 February 2006 |website=Science and Nature: Animals |publisher=[[BBC]] (bbc.co.uk)}}</ref> The [[Specific name (zoology)|specific name]] ''punctatus'' is [[latin language|Latin]] for "spotted",<ref>{{cite book |author=Stearn, W.T. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w0hZvTFJUioC&q=botanical+epithets+punctatus&pg=PA476 |title=Botanical Latin |date=1 April 2004 |publisher=Timber Press |isbn=978-0-88192-627-9 |place=Portland, OR |page=476 |via=Google Books}}</ref> and ''guntheri'' refers to [[Germany|German]]-born [[British people|British]] [[Herpetology|herpetologist]] [[Albert Günther]].<ref>{{cite book |author1=Beolens, Bo |author1-link=species:Bo Beolens |title=The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles |author2=Watkins, Michael |author2-link=species:Michael Watkins |author3=Grayson, Michael |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-4214-0135-5 |place=Baltimore, Maryland }} xiii + 296 pp. (''Sphenodon guntheri'', p. 110).</ref> A 2009 paper re-examined the genetic bases used to distinguish the two supposed species of tuatara, and concluded they represent only geographic variants, and only one species should be recognised.<ref name="Hay">{{cite journal |vauthors=Hay JM, Sarre SD, Lambert DM, Allendorf FW, Daugherty CH |year=2010 |title=Genetic diversity and taxonomy: a reassessment of species designation in tuatara (''Sphenodon'': Reptilia) |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10592-009-9952-7 |journal=Conservation Genetics |volume=11 |pages=1063–1081 |bibcode=2010ConG...11.1063H |doi=10.1007/s10592-009-9952-7 |s2cid=24965201 |hdl-access=free |number=3 |hdl=10072/30480}}</ref> Consequently, the northern tuatara was re-classified as ''Sphenodon punctatus punctatus'' and the Brothers Island tuatara as ''Sphenodon punctatus guntheri''. The Brothers Island tuatara has olive brown skin with yellowish patches, while the colour of the northern tuatara ranges from olive green through grey to dark pink or brick red, often mottled, and always with white spots.<ref name="karori" /><ref name="encyclo" /><ref name="lutz16">{{Harvnb|Lutz|2005|p=16}}</ref> In addition, the Brothers Island tuatara is considerably smaller.<ref name="NZRG">{{cite book |author1=Gill, B. |title=New Zealand Frogs and Reptiles |author2=Whitaker, T. |publisher=David Bateman Publishing |year=1996 |isbn=1-86953-264-3 |pages=22–24}}</ref> However, individuals from Brothers Island could not be distinguished from other modern and fossil samples on the basis of jaw morphology.<ref name="Vaux 2019">{{cite journal |author1=Vaux, F. |author2=Morgan-Richards, M. |author3=Daly, E.E. |author4=Trewick, S.A. |year=2019 |title=Tuatara and a new morphometric dataset for Rhynchocephalia: Comments on Herrera-Flores ''et al''. |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pala.12402 |journal=Palaeontology |volume=62 |issue=2 |pages=321–334 |bibcode=2019Palgy..62..321V |doi=10.1111/pala.12402 |s2cid=134902015}}</ref> 

An extinct species of ''Sphenodon'' was identified in November&nbsp;1885 by William Colenso, who was sent an incomplete [[subfossil]] specimen from a local coal mine. Colenso named the new species ''S. diversum''.<ref name="colenso1885">{{cite journal |author=Colenso, W. |year=1885 |title=Notes on the bones of a species of ''Sphenodon'', (''S. diversum'', Col.,) apparently distinct from the species already known |url=http://rsnz.natlib.govt.nz/volume/rsnz_18/rsnz_18_00_000850.pdf |journal=Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand |volume=18 |pages=118–128}}</ref> Fawcett and Smith (1970) consider it a synonym to the subspecies, based on a lack of distinction.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Fawcett |first1=James D. |last2=Smith |first2=Hobart M. |date=1970 |title=An Overlooked Synonym of Sphenodon punctatus, the New Zealand Tuatara |journal=Journal of Herpetology |volume=4 |issue=1–2 |pages=89–91|doi=10.2307/1562712 |jstor=1562712 }}</ref>