New Zealand’s native dinosaur, the tuatara won’t be able to mate if the country keeps breaking record temperatures.

The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research yesterday confirmed 2016 was the warmest year since records began, more than a hundred years ago.

Forest and Bird climate spokesperson Geoff Keey says tuatara have a quirky trait … when the temperature rises, more males are born.

He says the world is headed to about 4 degrees warming, at which point there would be no more female tuatara born – meaning the species would go extinct in the wild.

– Newstalk ZB