The Amazon rainforest is a broadleaf forest that covers most of the Amazon basin in South America. The forest covers Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana.

The Amazon is approximately 2,123,562 sq mi, or 5,500,000 sq km. It has half of the world’s remaining rainforest. The forest would have been created during the Eocene era, which was the time the first modern mammals existed. The Amazon River that is in the rainforest is the largest and 2nd longest river in the world. The river (and part of the forest) was discovered and explored by a Spanish explorer named Francisco de Orellana, a Spanish explorer in 1542. The forest is home to more than 2.5 million species of insect, and at least 2000 species of birds and mammals. To be specific, about 40,000 plant, 3,000 fish, 1,294 bird, 427 mammal, 428 amphibian, and 378 reptile species have been scientifically identified. A 25 acre land in the rainforest contains more than 700 species of trees. However, due to deforestation in high demands in wood, animals and plants for medicine and also land for farming, the rainforest is shrinking quickly. Scientists predict that 10 million species of plants, animals, and microorganisms will become extinct or severely threatened over the next quarter century if the deforestation continues.