ENDEMISM

Endemism

Endemism

Endemism is a phenomenon in which some animals or plants are unique to a given territory. Although, technically, the term endemism can also be applied to vast areas such as entire continents (e.g., armadillos are endemic to America). The endemic species can be related to areas, such as very small islands; which are sometimes based on very small areas. Endemism can be seen in a very wide range of geographical scales. Thus, an organism may be endemic to a mountaintop or a lake, a mountain or a river system, an island, a country or even a continent. Normally, ...