Costa Rica's biodiversity II
The tropical zones of the American continent, have more species
than any other tropical region of the world more than four percent
of all living species.
Costa
Rica's biodiversity is rich even by tropical standards. If size
is taken into account, Costa Rica has 8.5 times the number of
tree species found in Colombia and almost 50 times the number
found in Brazil. (For example, for every 10,000 kilometres, Costa
Rica has 295 tree species, while Colombia has 35 species and Brazil,
6.)
Many species are still a mystery. Of the 500,000 species found
in in Costa Rica less than 18 percent have been described scientifically.
Currently, 98.8 percent of vertebrates (excluding fish), close
to 90 percent of plants and 60% of fish have been described. Less
than 20 percent of arthropods,* invertebrates, excluding mollusks
have been described. Groups such as fungi, bacteria and virus
are almost unknown.
Links
on Costa Rica's biodiversity
* arthropods: Any
of numerous invertebrate animals of the phylum Arthropoda, including
the insects, crustaceans, arachnids, and myriapods, that are characterized
by a chitinous exoskeleton and a segmented body to which jointed
appendages are articulated in pairs.
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