Tuatara - famous New Zealand living fossil. The tuatara is a reptile found in New Zealand, it is the only surviving member of Rhynchocephalia, or Sphenodontia/Sphenodontida and has been classified as an endangered species since 1895. Tuatara, like many native New Zealand animals, were threatened by habitat loss, harvesting, and introduced species such as mustelids and rats, and were extinct on the mainland with the remaining populations confined to 32 mammal free offshore islands, until a first mainland release into the heavily fenced and monitored Karori Wildlife Sanctuary in 2005. 固opFoto / Fortean