The Amazon Rainforest is an amazing place. For starters, it's the largest rainforest in the world; it is 2/3 the size of the continental United States. Rivers in the Amazon produce 20 percent of the world's freshwater discharge. And when it comes to carbon storage, the Amazon holds the equivalent of 10 years' worth of global fossil-fuel emissions.
The Amazon is also wonderfully diverse. Here are just a few of the living things that can be found in the Amazon Rainforest:
- There are 20 to 100 different tree species per acre in the Amazon.
- The total number of tree species is estimated to be 2,500.
- The total number of plant species is estimated to be 40,000.
- There are 2.5 million species of insects in the Amazon and 7,500 species of butterflies.
- Fifty species of ants have been found in one single tree.
- Twenty percent of the entire world's bird species live in the Amazon.
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