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The Amazon rainforest, [a] also called Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin encompasses 7,000,000 km 2 (2,700,000 sq mi), [ 2 ] of which 6,000,000 km 2 (2,300,000 sq mi) are covered by the rainforest . [ 3 ]
The tropical rainforests of South America contain the largest diversity of species on Earth. [1] [2] Tropical rainforest climate zones (Af). Tropical forests: from the UN FRA2000 report. Tropical rainforests are dense and warm rainforests with high rainfall typically found between 10° north and south of the Equator.
The Valdivian and Magellanic temperate rainforests are the only temperate rain forests in South America and one of a small number of temperate rain forests in the world. Together they are the second largest in the world, after the Pacific temperate rain forests of North America (which stretches from Alaska to northern California).
The geography of South America contains many diverse regions and climates. Geographically, South America is generally considered a continent forming the southern portion of the landmass of the Americas, south and east of the Colombia–Panama border by most authorities, or south and east of the Panama Canal by some.
Another tiny friend found in the Valdivian rainforest is the Monito del Monte. This tiny opossum weighs less than a pound and lives in the thickets of bamboo within the forests.
These forests occur in a belt around the equator, with the largest areas in the Amazon basin of South America, the Congo Basin of central Africa, the Wet Tropics of Queensland in Australia and parts of the Malay Archipelago. About half of the world's tropical rainforests are in the South American countries of Brazil and Peru.
The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about 7,000,000 km 2 (2,700,000 sq mi), [1] or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries of Bolivia , Brazil , Colombia , Ecuador , Guyana , Peru , Suriname , and Venezuela , as well as the territory of French Guiana .
Most of the interior of the Amazon basin is covered by rainforest. [6] The dense tropical Amazon rainforest is the largest tropical rainforest in the world. [2] It covers between 5,500,000 and 6,200,000 square kilometres (2,100,000 and 2,400,000 sq mi) of the 6,700,000 to 6,900,000 square kilometres (2,600,000 to 2,700,000 sq mi) Amazon biome.