Searching for biodiversity under Mexico
For sheer richness and variety of life in all its forms, no area on earth can match the tropical rainforest. Although it occupies less than seven per cent of the world’s surface, the rainforest contains between one half and 95 per cent of all known species of the planet’s flora and fauna.
"If we are able to maintain these components of diversity, there is the possibility that the tropical rainforest may spread again and regenerate even after a long arid period has intervened.”
Valerio Sbordoni, a biologist, zoologist and speleologist from Italy, is a world expert in the obscure underground habitats of the tropics, where he has discovered dozens of species never before known to mankind. Sbordoni now plans a series of expeditions to search for life forms – and to test new theories of biodiversity and the evolution of species – in the remote caves and sotanos (giant potholes) of southern Mexico.
- Project Location
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Jean-François Pernette
Explore one of the most inhospitable places on earth
Antonio De Vivo
Explore underground rivers and caves of the Rio La Venta Canyon
- Other 1998 Associate Laureates
- Contact Information
Valerio Sbordoni
Professor of Zoology and Evolution
Tor Vergata University
Department of Biology
00133 Rome
ItalyTel: + 39 06 7259 5951/ 8
valerio.sbordoni@uniroma2.it
