cosmopolitan and endemic - a species, opposite to each other on the habitat.The name speaks for itself: ἔνδημος translated from Greek means "local".Vital functions of flora and fauna in any confined space is called endemism.
where they live
endemic plants, as well as endemic animals, birds, insects, there are usually some one valley, on a ridge, in a desert or on oceanic islands.We can say that those endemic rich in places that did not have a longer biological contacts with representatives of the flora and fauna of other lands.This, for example, Madagascar, the Hawaiian Islands, Saint Helena.
The rocky Namib Desert in Africa grows unusual plant Welwitschia mirabilis - Welwitschia amazing, it is like a stray from the dry sand scorching geyser short, amazing traveler unexpected beauty.
Old and new
Territories where you can find endemic - it is not strictly limited by the amount of space, they can be quite large.Endemic and science calls these types of plants and animals that are common to any one continent or part thereof.For example, most of the eucalyptus trees growing in Australia and New Zealand, one of the species of plants found only in the Philippines.The same thing happened with a special kind of softwood - Metasequoia (Metasequoia glyptostroboides), which can grow up to thirty meters in height.She was considered extinct from the earth, but in the middle of the last century, scientists have found those trees in the mountain forests of Sichuan province.Then Metasequoia found in certain limited areas of the Northern Hemisphere.Experts say that this is endemic - is representative of the ancient species, which is more accurately called paleoendemikom.In contrast, there are the so-called neoendemics - new species arise in isolated areas.
who lives in the clear water of Lake Baikal
originated more than 25 million years ago, the deepest fresh water body is known for a large number of endemic species.Experts have found that every third inhabitant of the lake - is endemic.This fish (Baikal sculpin, golomyanka, cisco), crustaceans (amphipod), invertebrates (sponges Baikal).
Lake Baikal boasts a magnificent freshwater seal, which is also called the Baikal seal.This endemic species is found in northern and central parts of the lake.Winters Baikal seal in burrows in the snow or ice, raking them special air holes - holes for air.Researchers believe that the seal got into Baikal from the Arctic Ocean through northern rivers Yenisey and Angara in the Ice Age.
modern relics
Among the other most famous endemic animals can be called troops Marsupials and Oviparous.The oldest paleoendemiki also called living fossils.Among them, a group of scientists allocate almost extinct Crossopterygii.The fins of the representatives of the kingdom of water placed on the muscle blades.Today, the only samples Crossopterygii are discovered in 1938 endemic fish, called the coelacanth.One species of fish living in the southern and eastern coast of Africa, and the other - near the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia.
Many endemic species listed in the Red Book.Among them - the endangered sea Caspian seal.In the tropics, the South West Indian living tree lvinohvosty macaques, which is also called Vander, they in the world there are not more than two and a half thousand.One of the most vulnerable species of animals on the planet named angonoka tortoise.
word "endemic" and has a figurative meaning, its use is sometimes metaphorically speaking about cultural features, which take place in the ethnographic, religious or any other local group.
