Rhynchocephalia (; ) is an order of lizard-like reptiles that includes only one living species, the tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus) of New Zealand. Despite its current lack of diversity, during the Mesozoic rhynchocephalians were a speciose group with high morphological and ecological diversity. The oldest record of the group is dated to the Middle Triassic around 244 million years ago, and they had achieved global distribution by the Early Jurassic. Most rhynchocephalians belong to the suborder Sphenodontia ('wedge-teeth'). Their closest living relatives are lizards and snakes in the order Squamata, with the two orders being grouped together in the superorder Lepidosauria.
Rhynchocephalians are distinguished from squamates by a number of traits, including the retention of rib-like gastralia bones in the belly, and a proatlas bone in the neck as well as most rhynchocephalians having acrodont teeth that are fused to the crests of the jaws (the latter also found among a small number of modern lizard groups like agamids).
Once representing the world's dominant group of small reptiles, many of the niches occupied by lizards today were held by rhynchocephalians during the Triassic and Jurassic. Rhynchocephalians underwent a great decline during the Cretaceous, and they had disappeared almost entirely by the beginning of the Cenozoic. While the modern tuatara is primarily insectivorous and carnivorous, the diversity of the group also included the herbivorous eilenodontines, and there were other rhynchocephalians with specialised ecologies like the durophagous sapheosaurs. There were even successful groups of aquatic sphenodontians, such as the elongate-bodied pleurosaurs.
Research history Tuatara were originally classified as agamid lizards when they were first described by John Edward Gray in 1831. They remained misclassified until 1867, when Albert Günther of the British Museum noted features similar to birds, turtles, and crocodiles. He proposed the order Rhynchocephalia (from Ancient Greek () 'beak' and () 'head', meaning "beak head") for the tuatara and its fossil relatives. In 1925, Samuel Wendell Williston proposed the Sphenodontia to include only tuatara and their closest fossil relatives. Sphenodon is derived from Ancient Greek () 'wedge' and () 'tooth'. Many disparately related species were subsequently added to the Rhynchocephalia, resulting in what taxonomists call a "wastebasket taxon". These include the superficially similar (both in shape and name) but unrelated rhynchosaurs, which lived in the Triassic. Studies in the 1970s and 1980s demonstrated that many rhynchosaurs were unrelated, with computer-based cladistic analysis conducted in the 1980s providing a robust diagnosis for the definition of the group.Gauthier, J., Estes, R. & De Queiroz, K. (1988). A phylogenetic analysis of Lepidosauromorpha. In Phylogenetic Relationships of the Lizard Families (eds R. Estes and G. Pregill), pp. 15–98. Stanford University Press, Stanford.
Anatomy
Rhynchocephalia and their sister group Squamata (which includes lizards, snakes and amphisbaenians) belong to the superorder Lepidosauria, the only surviving taxon within Lepidosauromorpha.
Squamates and rhynchocephalians have a number of shared traits (synapomorphies), including fracture planes within the tail vertebrae allowing caudal autotomy (loss of the tail when threatened), transverse cloacal slits, an opening in the pelvis known as the thyroid fenestra, the presence of extra ossification centres in the limb bone epiphyses, a knee joint where a lateral recess on the femur allows the articulation of the fibula, the development of a sexual segment of the kidney, and a number of traits of the feet bones, including a fused astralago-calcaneun and enlarged fourth distal tarsal, which creates a new joint, along with a hooked fifth metatarsal.
Like some lizards, the tuatara possesses a parietal eye (also called a pineal eye or a third eye) covered by scales at the top of the head formed by the parapineal organ, with an accompanying hole in the skull roof enclosed by the parietal bones, dubbed the "pineal foramen", which is also present in fossil rhynchocephalians. The parietal eye detects light (though it is probably not capable of detecting movement or forming images), monitoring the day-night and seasonal cycles, helping to regulate the circadian rhythm, among other functions. While parietal eyes were widespread among early vertebrates, including early reptiles, they have been lost among most living groups.
Rhynchocephalians are distinguished from squamates by a number of traits, including the retention of gastralia (rib-like bones present in the belly of the body, ancestrally present in tetrapods and also present in living crocodilians). Unlike squamates, but similar to the majority of birds, the tuatara lacks a penis. This is a secondary loss, as a penis or squamate-like hemipenes were probably present in the last common ancestor of rhynchocephalians and squamates.
The complete lower temporal bar (caused by the fusion of the jugal and quadtrate/quadratojugal bones of the skull) of the tuatara, often historically asserted to be a primitive feature retained from earlier reptiles, is actually a derived feature among sphenodontians, with primitive lepidosauromorphs and many rhynchocephalians including the most primitive ones having an open lower temporal fenestra without a temporal bar. While often lacking a complete temporal bar, the vast majority of rhynchocephalians have a posteriorly directed process (extension) of the jugal bone. All known rhynchocephalians lack the splenial bone present in the lower jaw of more primitive reptiles, with the skulls of all members of Sphenodontia lacking lacrimal bones. The majority of rhynchocephalians also have fused frontal bones of the skull. While early rhynchocephalians possessed a tympanic membrane in the ear and a corresponding quadrate conch, similar to those found in lizards, these have been lost in the tuatara and likely other derived rhynchocephalians. This loss may be connected to the development of back and forth motion of the lower jaw. The dentition of most rhynchocephalians, including the tuatara, is described as acrodont, which is associated with the condition of the teeth being attached to the crest of the jaw bone, lacking tooth replacement and having extensive bone growth fusing the teeth to the jaws resulting in the boundary between the teeth and bone being difficult to discern. This differs from the condition found in most lizards (except acrodontans), which have pleurodont teeth which are attached to the shelf on the inward-facing side of the jaw, and are replaced throughout life. The teeth of the tuatara have no roots, though the teeth of some other rhynchocephalians possess roots (in addition, the precise technical meaning of term "acrodont" is somewhat ambiguous and the term is used with inconsistent meanings by different researchers). The acrodont dentition appears to be a derived character of rhynchocephalians not found in more primitive lepidosauromorphs. The most primitive rhynchocephalians have either pleurodont teeth or a combination of both pleurodont front and acrodont posterior teeth. Some rhynchocephalians differ from these conditions, with Ankylosphenodon having superficially acrodont teeth that continue deeply into the jaw bone, and are fused to the bone at the base of the socket (ankylothecodont). In many derived sphenodontians, the premaxillary teeth at the front of the upper jaw are merged into a large chisel-like structure.
Rhynchocephalians possess palatal dentition (teeth present on the bones of the roof of the mouth). Palatal teeth are ancestrally present in tetrapods, but have been lost in many groups. The earliest rhynchocephalians had teeth present on the palatine, vomer and pterygoid bones, though the vomer and/or the pterygoid teeth are lost in some groups, including the living tuatara, which only has palatine teeth. A distinctive character found in all rhynchocephalians is the enlargement of the tooth row present on the palatine bones. While in other rhynchocephalians the palatine tooth row is oblique to the teeth of the maxilla, in members of Sphenodontinae (including the tuatara) and Eilenodontinae it is orientated parallel to the maxilla. In these groups, during biting, the teeth of the dentary in the lower jaw slot between the maxillary and palatine tooth rows. This arrangement, which is unique among amniotes, permits three point bending of food items, and in combination with propalinal movement (back and forward motion of the lower jaw) allows for a shearing bite.
The body size of rhynchocephalians is highly variable. The tuatara has an average total length of for females and males respectively. Clevosaurus sectumsemper has an estimated total length of , while large individuals of the largest known terrestrial sphenodontian, Priosphenodon avelasi reached total lengths of just over . The aquatic pleurosaurs reached lengths of up to .
Most derived rhynchocephalians have the number of presacral vertebrae (the number of vertebrae forward of the sacrum) typically around 23-25, though the number is much greater in pleurosaurs, where it reaches up to 57 in some individuals. Seven cervical vertebrae in the neck may be typical for rhynchocephalians as it is for the tuatara. The tuatara has paired proatlas bones between the atlas (the first neck vertebra) and the skull, which is widely assumed to be an ancestral feature among reptiles, but which has been lost in squamates. Proatlas bones have not been definitely identified in fossil rhynchocephalians, which may reflect the difficulty in recognising them in fossils rather than genuine absence. Rhynchocephalians typically have amphicoelous vertebral centra (both faces are concave) on their presacral vertebrae.
The tuatara has among the highest known ages of sexual maturity among reptiles, at around 9 to 13 years of age, and has a high longevity in comparison to lizards of similar size, with wild individuals likely reaching 70 years, and possibly over 100 years in age. Such a late onset of sexual maturity and longevity may have or not have been typical of extinct rhynchocephalians.
Classification