New Zealand has more lizard species per square kilometre than warmer, dryer places such as Australia, Texas and California, and also in the United Kingdom, which has a similar, temperate climate. In this diagram New Zealand, with about 80 lizard species and a land area of 270,500 square kilometres, is ranked as 1. Other places are measured relative to this. For example, Australia has a higher total number of species (623), but because of its much larger land area it ranks lower than New Zealand.
Using this item
Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand
Source: adapted from Kerry-Jayne Wilson, Flight of the huia. Christchurch: Canterbury University Press, 2004, p. 31
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