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A field guide for the curious

8.7 million species. One of them is reading this.

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Eight worlds

Pick a place to start.

Each one is a complete answer to the same question: what does life do when conditions change?

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Amazon Rainforest
South America
Amazon Rainforest

The lungs of the planet. Ten percent of all known life on Earth, packed into one drainage basin.

30,000,000 speciesEnter →
Arctic & Antarctic
Poles
Arctic & Antarctic

Where life evolved against the cold. Fat, fur, and patience as survival strategy.

5,500 speciesEnter →
African Savanna
Sub-Saharan Africa
African Savanna

The original arena. Where most of vertebrate evolution played its loudest hand.

40,000 speciesEnter →
Deep Ocean
Global pelagic
Deep Ocean

Earth's largest habitat. Pressure measured in tons. Almost everything down here glows.

2,200,000 speciesEnter →
Coral Reefs
Tropical seas
Coral Reefs

The cities of the ocean. 25% of marine species live here, on 0.1% of the seafloor.

1,000,000 speciesEnter →
Himalayas
High Asia
Himalayas

The world's roof. Where animals evolved to breathe air thinner than altitude sickness.

25,000 speciesEnter →
Ancient Earth
Deep time
Ancient Earth

The animals that came before. Bigger, stranger, mostly extinct, occasionally still here.

250,000 speciesEnter →
Human Sphere
Every biome
Human Sphere

The one animal that lives in all of them. Soft skin, no claws, conquered the planet.

1 speciesEnter →
Mangrove Forests
Tropical coasts
Mangrove Forests

Where the forest walks into the sea. Roots breathe air, fish climb trees, the tide rules everything.

4,200 speciesEnter →
Hot Deserts
Subtropical belts
Hot Deserts

Where water is currency. Every animal here is a water-budgeting machine.

8,500 speciesEnter →
Wetlands & Swamps
Worldwide lowlands
Wetlands & Swamps

Earth's kidneys. Half-water half-land, double the species density of either.

100,000 speciesEnter →
Tundra
Subarctic & alpine
Tundra

Frozen ground, ninety-day summers. Life on a deadline.

1,700 speciesEnter →
Cave & Subterranean
Beneath every continent
Cave & Subterranean

No sunlight, ever. Eyes go blind, pigment vanishes, life invents new senses.

50,000 speciesEnter →
Lakes & Rivers
Inland waters
Lakes & Rivers

Less than 1% of Earth's water — and 10% of all known species.

140,000 speciesEnter →
Urban Wilds
Inside every city
Urban Wilds

The new biome humans built. Coyotes ride subways, rats outvote citizens, raccoons run for office.

20,000 speciesEnter →
Temperate Forests
Mid-latitudes
Temperate Forests

Four seasons, deep memory. Trees here talk through fungal networks older than civilization.

100,000 speciesEnter →
Boreal Forest
Subarctic Eurasia & North America
Boreal Forest

The taiga. Largest land biome on Earth — endless spruce, snow, and silence.

9,000 speciesEnter →
Grasslands & Steppe
Continental interiors
Grasslands & Steppe

The flat empire. Built grazing mammals, shaped human civilization, fed half the world.

12,000 speciesEnter →
Alpine Meadows
Above tree line
Alpine Meadows

Above the trees, below the snow. Short summers, intense colour, animals that won't go lower.

6,500 speciesEnter →
Kelp Forests
Cold temperate coasts
Kelp Forests

Underwater forests that grow 60 cm a day. Sea otters, sharks, and the only ecosystem rivalling rainforests for productivity.

800 speciesEnter →
Mediterranean Scrub
Five winter-wet coasts worldwide
Mediterranean Scrub

Five Mediterranean climates, one playbook: drought-built shrubs, fire-loving plants, ridiculous biodiversity.

20,000 speciesEnter →
Hydrothermal Vents
Mid-ocean ridges
Hydrothermal Vents

Life without sun. Tube worms, white crabs, and 400 °C chimneys on the seafloor.

600 speciesEnter →
Island Endemics
Isolated archipelagos
Island Endemics

Where evolution gets weird in private. Giants, dwarves, flightless birds, and species that exist nowhere else.

25,000 speciesEnter →
Swamps & Bayous
Subtropical lowlands
Swamps & Bayous

Slow water, hanging moss, alligators in the cypress shadows. Older than the dinosaurs that drowned in them.

70,000 speciesEnter →
The dessert

When you're done learning, watch them fight.

Apex Clash. Real biology, real stats. Pick two animals. Science gives the verdict. The crowd votes anyway.

Enter Apex Clash →