Lede of the day

From a CNN.com story:

(CNN) — It took about 110 years and some delicate surgery on his most private parts, but Henry — a lizard-like creature from New Zealand — is now a dad.

Henry, a tuatara who, as far as curators at Southland Museum in New Zealand know, had never mated before, hooked up with Mildred, a younger woman of about 80, in March.

In July she laid 11 healthy eggs and, this week, all 11 of them hatched — the last one on Wednesday.

“Eleven out of eleven,” curator Lindsay Hazley said Friday morning. “Bloody brilliant. We had a champagne breakfast to celebrate.” . . .

But it didn’t come easy.

Until about six years ago, Henry was a nasty, irritable fellow who showed no interest in mating and would attack females when they were introduced. Hazley, who has been breeding tuataras for the past 35 years, eventually had to put him in “solitary confinement.”