Lizard love: 110-year dinosaur descendent to become daddy

Although he's 110 years old and hasn't shown interest in sex for over four decades, Henry is going to be a dad.

A tuatara, a rare species descended from dinosaurs, Henry is a lizard-like creature whose species has been endangered since the 1890s. They are now only found on a handful of New Zealand's offshore islands.

Henry is the oldest tuatara to mate at Southland Museum on the country's South Island. His best years as a lady lizard's man may be ahead of him, though, because he's actually middle aged. His species can live well past 200.

"I had given up on old Henry," said curator Lindsay Hazley, who said he had to keep Henry in "solitary confinement" because he attacked females who approached him to mate.

Henry began to overcome his reptile dysfunction in 2002 when veterinarians realized a lump in the animal's nether regions was a cancerous tumor. They removed it and, over the next few years, his attitude changed.

"If I had a tumor underneath my [genitals], when girls were passing by, I'd be a very grumpy boy, too," said Hazley, who has cared for tuataras at the museum for 35 years.
In March, Henry mated with Mildred, whose age is estimated between 70 and 80. Last month, she laid 12 fertile eggs -- 11 of which are healthy.

Healthy hatchlings would be a boost for the tuatara, which is the only living descendant of the order Sphenodontian that flourished 200 million years ago.

They can grow up to 32 inches from head to tail, much smaller than their ancestors, but the spiny ridges along their back suggest their prehistoric parentage.

The word "tuatara" is derived from a Maori word meaning "spiny back." In Maori legend, they are messengers of Whiro, the god of death and disaster. They were featured on one side of a New Zealand five-cent coin that was phased out in 2006.

Hazley estimated that as many as 40,000 tuataras live on one of New Zealand's tiny, outlying islands, with much smaller populations on several others. There are 51 at Southland Museum, where Hazley has been breeding them for years. He hopes Henry and Mildred's hatchlings will be the latest success.

"I think he'll be at these girls long after I'm gone," said Hazley.

"I'm excited, but I don't want to get too excited because Mother Nature's always got the power to ground you," he said. "I really don't like counting the chickens before they hatch, but each day that goes by, I'm becoming more confident they're going to be fine."