Tuatara

The tuatara looks like a lizard but isn't one. It's the sole survivor of Rhynchocephalia, an order that once flourished alongside dinosaurs but has been reduced to a single species on a few New Zealand islands. While its relatives went extinct worldwide, the tuatara persisted in geographic isolation, preserving features that disappeared everywhere else: a third 'parietal' eye, teeth fused to the jawbone, and a body plan unchanged for 200 million years.

New Zealand's isolation created a predator-free refuge where the tuatara's ancestral design remained viable. Without mammals to compete with or prey upon them, tuataras could maintain their slow metabolism (they can hold their breath for an hour), slow reproduction (eggs incubate for 11-16 months), and slow growth (sexual maturity at 10-20 years). These traits would be fatal disadvantages elsewhere but are sustainable in the absence of competition.

For business, the tuatara represents survival through protected market isolation. Regulations, geographic barriers, or specialized requirements can create 'New Zealand' markets where ancestral business models survive. State-owned enterprises, heavily regulated utilities, and protected domestic industries often exhibit tuatara-like stability - maintaining designs that couldn't compete in open markets but persist behind protective barriers. The tuatara's near-extinction elsewhere warns that protection can preserve temporarily but rarely permanently. When barriers fall, tuatara designs face competition they're not equipped to handle.