On the show today, we discuss the tuatara- two (or possibly only one) species of reptile which are the final representatives of an ancient lineage. I didn't really go into it in the main episode, but there appears to be some debate about whether or not the tuatara is one species or two. All the sources I'd used in this week's episode list two species, but I afterwards discovered an article from the journal 'Conservation Genetics' which concluded that the tuatara should probably be thought of as one species instead of two. I might come back to it in a future episode.
The paper in question is: Hay, J. M., Sarre, Stephen D., Lambert, D. M., Allendorf, F. W. and Daugherty, C. H. (2010), Genetic diversity and taxonomy: a reassessment of species designation in tuatara (Sphenodon: Reptilia), Conservation Genetics 11: 1063-1081.
Sources for this episode:
