Find out what a tuatara has in common with a green sea turtle. Discover what sets a tuatara apart from a Brahminy blind snake. Check out the comparison charts and use your compare-and-contrast skills to explore reptile traits! Readers will compare and contrast key traits of tuataras—their appearance, behavior, habitat, and life cycle—to similar and different reptiles. Charts and sidebars support key ideas and provide details. Through gathering information about similarities and differences, readers will make connections and draw conclusions about what makes this animal a reptile and how reptiles are alike and different from each other.

"This is the first detailed monograph for decades about this enigmatic reptile, and the first to be illustrated in colour throughout. The evolution, natural history and conservation of tutara are covered in comprehensive detail ..." -- Back cover.

Lizards of the World is ultimate book on these fascinating creatures, featuring the all the different types of lizard worldwide. As survivors from the time of the dinosaurs, lizards are scaly, cold-blooded, living fossils—relics from a prehistoric world that remain alive and well in ours. Lizards exert a morbid fascination, in many mythologies they are dark creatures, symbolizing death and misfortune. From chameleons and skinks to geckos and iguanas, Lizards of the World brings these creatures firmly into the light, to reveal their extraordinary diversity Found in almost every type of terrain globally, there are almost 6,500 species of lizard, including lizards with frills, horns, or wings, those that drop their tails, and others that squirt blood from their eyes. Here, the lizard family and subfamily profiles, organized phylogenetically, are illustrated with stunning photography. Each profile includes a population distribution map, a table of essential information, and a fascinating commentary revealing notable characteristics, fresh scientific understanding, and the diversity of species. Written by world-renowned herpetologist Mark O’Shea, Lizards of the World is a magnificent showcase of the natural history and beauty of these remarkable reptiles.

In a large valley lies a geographical feature known as Jelly Mountain. It’s called that because of its shape – rather like a jelly having been popped out of its mould. Its straight sides mean the top has never been explored and there are many rumours about strange creatures inhabiting it. Efforts to explore have met with disaster – and this has only made the mystery and fear stronger. Then a light plane crash-lands after buzzing suspiciously around the top of Jelly Mountain … and twins Jason and Jessy become embroiled in a mystery that is not without danger and which is set to rock the whole world. And what does it have to do with the old journal they found hidden in the wall of the old house on the farm? Formerly titled The Secret of Jelly Mountain (2009).

The story of The tortoise and the hare retold with a New Zealand twist. A slow native tuatara and a quick little skink are pitted against each other to prove that slow and steady wins the race.

A wry look at what the astonishing world of animal penises can tell us about how we use our own. The fallacy sold to many of us is that the penis signals dominance and power. But this wry and penetrating book reveals that in fact nature did not shape the penis--or the human attached to it--to have the upper...hand. Phallacy looks closely at some of nature's more remarkable examples of penises and the many lessons to learn from them. In tracing how we ended up positioning our nondescript penis as a pulsing, awe-inspiring shaft of all masculinity and human dominance, Phallacy also shows what can we do to put that penis back where it belongs. Emphasizing our human capacities for impulse control, Phallacy ultimately challenges the toxic message that the penis makes the man and the man can't control himself. With instructive illustrations of unusual genitalia and tales of animal mating rituals that will make you particularly happy you are not a bedbug, Phallacy shows where humans fit on the continuum from fun to fatal phalli and why the human penis is an implement for intimacy, not intimidation.