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SUMMARY:TEPUI: Biological islands lost in space and time. From origins to 
 conservation - Fabian Michelangeli\, Simon Bolivar Professor\, Centre of L
 atin American Studies\, University of Cambridge 2010-11
DTSTART:20110512T113000Z
DTEND:20110512T130000Z
UID:TALK31128@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:23368
DESCRIPTION:From a vast sea of rain forest in southern Venezuela emerge a 
 set of mountains like no others on earth. These mountains – known as Tep
 uis -- of relatively flat summits and vertical walls\, rising several thou
 sand feet over the forest floor\, are the remnants of a gigantic plateau t
 hat once covered the Guayana shield\, and represent today one of the most 
 spectacular\, and for the most part unknown\, landscapes on the planet. Te
 puis can be considered as a living laboratory of evolution\, similar to th
 e Galápagos Islands that inspired Darwin’s The Origin of Species. Since
  the first ascent of Roraima-tepuy in 1884 by Im Thurn and Perkins\, these
  mountains\, sacred to the region’s indigenous inhabitants\, have fascin
 ated scientists and adventurers alike\, yet essential questions regarding 
 the origin of tepuy flora and fauna remain to date unsolved. Tepuis are no
 w protected under the Venezuelan National Park System\, but numerous threa
 ts to its preservation remain. The seminar will draw out the issues of bio
 diversity\, conservation and the context of the new geopolitics.\n\nThe ro
 cks that constitute this formation are mostly sandstones dating back sever
 al billion years and that were laid upon the shield at the very origin of 
 the earth’s crust. Fragmentation of the plateau and the subsequent erosi
 on over several hundred million years gave rise to the mountain system we 
 know today. Some fifty summits witness these geological processes. The iso
 lation in space and time originated a rich and peculiar flora and fauna th
 at evolved separately and parallel to give rise to a very high degree of e
 ndemism. The geography and topography of this “island system” has a tr
 emendous influence on the local and regional climate and this\, on the oth
 er hand\, on the evolutionary processes that took and are still taking pla
 ce. \n\n
LOCATION:Hardy Building 101\, Downing Site
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