02 Track 2

Unit 6

It’s a Mystery

Chapter 1

The “Lost World” of South America

Page 95

The “Lost World” of South America

The world is far less a mystery than it was a century ago, but it still holds a few locations that baffles scientists and researchers. Early explorers spoke of mysterious mountains. towering above South America’s jungle.

Such stories inspired Arthur Conan Doyle to write The Lost World, a novel set in an isolated place still inhabited by dinosaurs. That dinosaurs were fiction, but the mountains are real.

The mountains are called tepuis, or “house of the gods,” in the language of the local Pemon. Rising thousands of meters into the sky over the jungles of Guyana, Brazil and Venezuela, these are dramatic sandstone structures (called mesas by geologists) with flat tops and steep sides.

Tepuis are so remote that they have prevented researchers from exploring them fully − they truly are among the last unexplored places on Earth.

The flat summits, ranging from a few square kilometers to dozens and even hundreds of square kilometers, used to be connected.

Some scientists even believe that these tepuis have life forms from the ancient super continent known as Gondwana, which may have included what we know today as South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia and other land masses.

“A few people have been there but really not a lot, considering what they are − among the oldest formations in the world, “Jesus Rivas, a biology professor, said.

“They are like a place where time stopped. In the fauna or you can see South America evolving for the last 300 million years.”

The high altitude and the ancient age of the tepuis make them extremely interesting to biologists.

They are frequently described as “islands in the sky,” covered in tropical greenery that supports a wide range of wildlife. Indeed, many of the species that live on top of the tepuis are found nowhere else on the planet.

But because they are so hard to reach, scientists have only begun to scratch the surface of the enormous diversity on and around the tepuis.

One question still mystifies scientists: how did animals and plants end up in such an inaccessible place?

Some scientists believe in the “Lost World” theory − that these creatures have been living there since the tepuis were born.

But, in a paper published in the journal Evolution, studies on tree frogs exclusive to these tepuis showed that they had climbed up slowly over a few million years.

Unfortunately, until further studies are conducted, scientists can only speculate.

People who want to visit these tepuis can arrange special tours, but it will require enormous effort to get there. To make a comparison, Angel Falls in Venezuela − the tallest waterfall in the world − is probably the most popular tourist destination in the tepuis region.

However, the base of the falls can only be reached after flying into the jungle and hiking for hours.

When the creators of Up (a movie which featured the tepuis) visited to get a feel of the place, they chose Roraima − the “easiest” of the tepuis to climb.

Bob Peterson, one of the climbers, said: “It was like your worst nightmare. It was like a six- or seven-hour climb to the top and I had on way too much gear.

When we got to the top, we had to hike across uneven terrain for another hour and a half. It was already dark when we got to our camp. And suddenly, from out of the darkness we saw this cave lit by candles and there was warm soup waiting for us.

When we saw our tents, most of us just sat down and started crying. We were so happy to be there”.