The history of the Amazon can be quite astounding as well. There are few things as interesting or intriguing to a scientist as the Amazon rainforest. But we don’t want to give all the juice facts away. Keep on reading because these are 25 wild things about the Amazon that make it one of the most unique places on Earth!
25
A newly discovered, blind, and subterranean ant species in the Amazon is thought to be a direct descendent of the very first species of ant.
24
Some ants in the Amazon are known for raiding neighboring colonies and taking slaves
23
Martin Strel, a long distance swimmer from Slovenia, once swam the entire length of the Amazon in just over 2 months
22
For three weeks every year the full moon causes a tidal wave to roll up the Amazon river every single night. Some surfers have been known to ride the wave for over 10 kilometers
21
Underneath the Amazon is another river. It is about 4 km deeper, significantly wider, and just as long. It has been named the Rio Hamza.
20
20% of the world's oxygen comes from the Amazon Rainforest
19
Although numerous expeditions in the past tried to find the lost ancient cities of the Amazon that were rumored to be covered in gold, scientists eventually started doubting that civilization could prosper in such harsh conditions and on such infertile soil.
18
Scientists have found evidence of terra preta, or dark soil, covering vast patches of the Amazon. They think that ancient civilizations covered the ground with this man-made and nutrient rich soil which would have allowed cities and farms to be built
17
17 year old Juliane Koepcke landed in the middle of the Amazon when her plane crashed. All 91 other passengers died but she walked for 10 days before rescuers found her
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The Amazon is thought to have 2.5 million species of insects and more than half are thought to live in the canopy of the Amazon.
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There are tribes in the Amazon that have not yet been "contacted" and some scientists are against doing so
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There is a theory that the Amazon is actually a giant orchard that is left over from a civilization that flourished in the area nearly 3,000 years ago
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The Amazon River dumps so much fresh water into the ocean, that for nearly 100 miles off shore the ocean is less salty than normal
12
The mouth of the Amazon River is so large that it encloses an island named Marajo. The crazy part? Marajo is roughly the size of Switzerland.
11
The Amazon used to flow into the Pacific but it changed directions
10
A certain fungus discovered in Amazon (Pestalotiopsis microspora) can actually live exclusively on a diet of plastic
9
In terms of water flow, the Amazon River is bigger than the next 8 largest rivers on Earth combined!
8
Henry Ford once built a "work village" in the Amazon to harvest rubber. Today Fordlandia is an abandoned ghost town
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Arapaimam is a 300 pound fish that lives in the Amazon and is covered in armor to protect it from piranha bites
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Scientists have found that winds in the Bodélé depression of the Sahara Desert sweep 40 million tons of dust across the Atlantic Ocean and onto the Amazon Basin every single year.
5
One days worth of water flowing out of the Amazon River is equal to 12 years of water usage by the entire city of New York. The river actually accounts for 20% of the world's fresh water
4
The Amazon is packed with so much biodiversity that a single bush can potentially have more species of ants than the British Isles…and that's just ants.
3
The Amazon got its name when female warriors attacked Spanish explorer Francisco Orellana. He named the river Rio Amazonas as he compared the female warriors to the Amazons of Greek mythology
2
The Amazon is home to over 3,000 fruits. By comparison, western cultures are known to eat around 200
1
The rainforest is home to more than half of the world's 10 million species of animals
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