What reptiles have survived the longest?
The reptiles set a record about 300 million years ago. They became the first backboned animals to live their entire lives on the dry land. In the modern world, the life span record is held by two of their descendants. And these old timers just happen to resemb1e their remote reptile ancestors. Our most famous old timer is the giant turtle of the Galopagos Islands. In his balmy Pacific home near the Equator, the huge slow poke may Enjoy life for 100 years or more. Far across the Pacific, on a few ocean islands off New Zealand, lives the tuatara the last survivor of an ancient family. The tuatara, known as the beak headed lizard, can expect to outlive even a Galopogos turtle. So far as we know, these two old timers have the longest life spans of our sizable . Living animals. Since turtles and lizards are in the class reptilia, these life span records belong to the reptiles. The family tree of all reptiles, living or Extinct, reaches back some 300 million years. Their original ancestors s
