|
|
Rainforest trees colonized Africa from the Amazon mongabay.com June 24, 2007 A giant rainforest tree is helping scientists understand similarities between African and South American rainforests, reports research published in the journal Molecular Ecology.
"Oceanic dispersal links the world's rainforests," said Dick, who's also a researcher at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. "This study is one of the first to catch that process in action at the species level. Although single seeds are very unlikely to survive an oceanic voyage and then successfully become established elsewhere, such improbable events become probable over 10 to 15 million years.'" At 200-230 feet (60-70 meters) tall, Kapok is a species that towers over the rainforest canopy. It typically occurring in flooded areas in tropical forests, especially in the flood plains of the Amazon basin. CITATION: Dick, C. et al (2007). Extreme long-distance dispersal of the lowland tropical rainforest tree Ceiba pentandra L. (Malvaceae) in Africa and the Neotropics. Molecular Biology online June 16, 2007 Comments? News options
News index | RSS | News Feed Advertisements: Organic Apparel from Patagonia | Insect-repelling clothing |
MONGABAY.COM
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER INTERACT
T-SHIRTS 
CALENDARS 
CANVAS BAGS 
|
|
Copyright mongabay 2009 |
