Was the Amazon once an ocean?
By Lizzie WadeMay. 3, 2017 , 2:15 PM
The Amazon rainforest is a treasure trove of biodiversity, containing 10% of the planet’s species in its 6.7 million square kilometers. How it got to be that way has been fiercely disputed for decades. Now, a new study suggests that a large section of the forest was twice flooded by the Caribbean Sea more than 10 million years ago, creating a short-lived inland sea that jump-started the evolution of new species. But the new evidence still hasn’t convinced scientists on the other side of the debate.
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/05/was-amazon-once-ocean
