Poison frog from the transition between the Andes and Amazonia in northeastern Peru. (Credit: Juan Carlos Santos, the University of Texas at Austin)
Posted on 01/03/2010 4:31:10 PM PST by SunkenCiv
South America is the world's most species-rich area. There have been many theories as to why, ranging from animals and plants accompanying the continent when it broke loose from Africa to variations in the extent of the rainforests over millions of years creating new species... South America's unique richness of species has been explained by several hypotheses. One states that animals and plants "accompanied" the South American continent when it broke loose from Africa 100 million years ago. Another proposes that many species were formed when the rainforest shrank into smaller areas during the Ice Ages and then subsequently expanded... most of South America's plant and animal groups are far too young to have been alive when Africa and South America were a single continent. On the other hand, most animal and plant groups are too old for their origins to be connected to vegetation changes during the Ice Ages which was considered the primary reason for South America's diversity. There again, according to the thesis, there is a strong connection between the elevation of the northern Andes and a massive rise in species. This is the first time such a connection has been demonstrated... The discovery that most of South America's species are several million years old has given strong grounds for protecting their survival and Alexandre Antonelli's thesis shows the important of long-term thinking when strategies for species preservation are being designed. The thesis, Spatiotemporal Evolution of Neotropical Organisms: New Insights into an Old Riddle was defended by viva on 28 November. The supervisor was Dr Claes Persson.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
Poison frog from the transition between the Andes and Amazonia in northeastern Peru. (Credit: Juan Carlos Santos, the University of Texas at Austin)
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Gods |
Let the bitching about "how many tax dollars" and the usual bloodbaths begin! To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. |
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You're getting tax money for this? Shame, Civ, shame.
Hey, that was over a year ago. I be hungry. ;’)
In fact, for some reason, I could go for some Andes Candies...
Forget the Peruvian Andes - Peru's mountain people face fight for survival in a bitter winter
And forget Prince Rainier. This is getting confusing.
They really like coca?
I figured it would be you... ;’)
“Coca leaves — betcha can’t eat just one!” ;’)
Hey, it’s all natural and organically grown. How much greener could you get??
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