Viola is a genus of flowering plants in the violet family Violaceae. It is the largest genus in the family, containing over 680 species. Most species are found in the temperate Northern Hemisphere; however, some are also found in widely divergent areas such as Hawaii, Australasia, and the Andes.
Lake Titicaca is a large freshwater lake in the Andes mountains on the border of Bolivia and Peru. It is often called the highest navigable lake in the world. Titicaca is the largest lake in South America both in terms of the volume of water and surface area. It has a surface elevation of 3,812 m (12,507 ft).
The vicuña or vicuna is one of the two wild South American camelids, which live in the high alpine areas of the Andes; the other camelid is the guanaco, which lives at lower elevations. Vicuñas are relatives of the llama, and are now believed to be the wild ancestor of domesticated alpacas, which are raised for their coats. Vicuñas produce small amounts of extremely fine wool, which is very expensive because the animal can only be shorn every three years and has to be caught from the wild. When knitted together, the product of the vicuña's wool is very soft and warm. The Inca valued vicuñas highly for their wool, and it was against the law for anyone but royalty to wear vicuña garments; today, the vicuña is the national animal of Peru and appears on the Peruvian coat of arms.
Huascarán National Park is a Peruvian national park that comprises most of the mountain range known as Cordillera Blanca which is part of the central Andes, in the region of Ancash. The park covers an area of 340,000 hectares and is managed by the Peruvian Network of Protected Natural Areas, or SERNANP. It was designated as a World Heritage Site in 1985 by UNESCO, is also a well-known mountaineering spot, and harbors a unique biodiversity with plant species such as the Queen of the Andes, trees of the genera Polylepis and Buddleja, and animals such as spectacled bears, condors, vicunas, and tarucas.
Hugh Iltis was a professor of botany and director of the herbarium at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. While he is most noted as a scientist for his role in the discovery of perennial teosinte, a wild diploid relative of modern maize, he is also remembered as an outspoken environmental conservationist.
The puna grassland ecoregion, part of the Andean montane grasslands and shrublands biome, is found in the central Andes Mountains of South America. It is considered one of the eight Natural Regions in Peru, but extends south, across Chile, Bolivia, and western northwest Argentina. The term puna encompasses diverse ecosystems of the high Central Andes above 3200–3400 m.
The Atacama Desert is a desert plateau located on the Pacific coast of South America, in the north of Chile. Stretching over a 1,600-kilometre-long (1,000-mile) strip of land west of the Andes Mountains, it covers an area of 105,000 km2 (41,000 sq mi), which increases to 128,000 km2 (49,000 sq mi) if the barren lower slopes of the Andes are included.
Peru has some of the greatest biodiversity in the world. It belongs to the select group of mega diverse countries because of the presence of the Andes, Amazon rainforest, and the Pacific Ocean. It has the fourth-most tropical forests of any country and the ninth-most forest area. The country is ranked among the five countries with the greatest biodiversity in the world according to various studies.
Lamini is a tribe of the subfamily Camelinae. It contains one extant genus with four species, all exclusively from South America: llamas, alpacas, vicuñas, and guanacos. The former two are domesticated species, while the latter two are only found in the wild. None display sexual dimorphism. The four species can interbreed and produce fertile offspring. Additionally, there are several extinct genera.
The International Institute for Species Exploration (IISE) was a research institute located in Syracuse, New York. Its mission was to improve taxonomical exploration and the cataloging of new species of flora and fauna. Between 2008 and 2018, IISE published a yearly "Top 10" of the most unusual or unique biota newly identified in the previous year, with the aim of drawing attention to the work done in taxonomy across the world over the previous year.
Paedophryne amauensis, also known as the New Guinea Amau frog, is a species of microhylid frog endemic to eastern Papua New Guinea. At 7.7 mm (0.30 in) in snout-to-vent length, it is considered the world's smallest known vertebrate.
Lucihormetica luckae is a species of giant cockroach (Blaberidae) from Ecuador.
The lesula is a species of Old World monkey in the guenon genus Cercopithecus, found in the Lomami Basin of the Congo. Though known to locals, it was unknown to the international scientific community until it was discovered in 2007 and confirmed in a 2012 publication. The lesula is the second new species of African monkey to be discovered since 1984. This monkey is described to have human looking eyes and a blue bottom “And adult males have a huge bare patch of skin in the buttocks, testicles and perianal area,” said John A. Hart, the researcher who described the monkey. “It’s a brilliant blue, really pretty spectacular.”
Chondrocladia lyra, also known as the lyre sponge or harp sponge, is a species of carnivorous deep-sea sponge first discovered off the Californian coast living at depths of 10,800–11,500 feet (3,300–3,500 m) by Welton L. Lee, Henry M Reiswig, William C. Austin, and Lonny Lundsten from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI).
Sibon noalamina is a species of snail-eating snake discovered in 2012 from western Panama. It belongs to the genus Sibon. It has a striking defensive mechanism from predators by mimicking the light and dark stripes of venomous coral snakes.
Ochroconis anomala is a species of fungus of the Ascomycota group described in 2012. It was isolated from the black stains that appeared on the walls of Lascaux Cave in France. The species was discovered along with a closely related O. lascauxensis. The species are regarded as a threat to the prehistoric paintings of the cave.
Eugenia petrikensis is a species of flowering plants belonging to the genus Eugenia and was described in 2012 by Neil Snow and coauthors. It is a large shrub with magenta-coloured flowers and was discovered from Toliara Province at the eastern shoreline of Madagascar. It is one of the seven novel species of Eugenia described from the region, in addition to E. guajavoides, E. manonae, E. stictophylla, E. roseopetiolata and E. stibephylla. It is an endangered species according to the IUCN Red List. The specific epithet is derived from the name of the area, Petriky, from where it was discovered.
Juracimbrophlebia is an extinct genus of hangingflies that lived during the Middle Jurassic Period about 165 million years ago, containing only its type species, Juracimbrophlebia ginkgofolia; it was discovered in deposits from Daohugou in northeastern China’s Inner Mongolia.
The South American cougar, also known as the Andean mountain lion or puma, is a cougar subspecies occurring in northern and western South America, from Colombia and Venezuela to Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile.
Punahyrax is an extinct genus of placental mammal belonging to the family Archaeohyracidae, within the order Notoungulata, and endemic of South America. Its fossilized remains were discovered in Argentina, and were found in the Geste Formation, near Antofagasta de la Sierra in the Catamarca Province, and in the Pozuelos Formation in the Salta Province. Those sites are considered to represent a fauna dated from the Mustersan, the South American Late Eocene.
