Animals of South America Puzzle: Geography Educational Game
The Animals of South America Puzzle is a free educational game designed to help you discover the strange and beautiful creatures lurking in South America. Test your biological and geographical knowledge in this interactive drag-and-drop map exercise! It is a brilliant "Minute to win it" tool for online science lessons, interactive geography classes, and testing your knowledge of global biodiversity.
South American Fauna and The Great Interchange
The fauna of South America consists of a huge variety of unique animals, many of which evolved in relative isolation. After the late Mesozoic breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana, South America spent most of the Cenozoic era as an island continent. This "splendid isolation" allowed its fauna to evolve into many incredible forms found nowhere else on Earth.
This isolation had an abrupt end a few million years ago when the volcanic Isthmus of Panama rose from the seafloor, bridging the formerly separated continents. This triggered the Great American Interchange, an important paleozoogeographic event where land and freshwater fauna migrated from North America into South America and vice versa.
How to play Animals of South America Puzzle
At the start of the game, 18 movable animal tiles will appear on the left side of the screen. Your task is to drag and drop the animals that actually inhabit the South American continent onto the correct general regions on the map on the right.
Be careful! Three of the animals shown do not belong in South America at all. You must identify and avoid these decoys!
Knowledge Achievements:
Successfully place 12 correct South American animals to earn +1 Knowledge Level on Planeta 42.
Difficulty Level: Easy.
Game code by Bard Ogi.
Did you know?
• The Amazon Rainforest: The Amazon Basin in South America is home to the largest and most biodiverse tract of tropical rainforest in the world. It is estimated that one in ten known species on Earth lives in the Amazon.
• Record Breakers: South America boasts incredible animal record holders. The Capybara is the largest living rodent in the world, the Green Anaconda is the heaviest snake, and the Goliath Birdeater (a type of tarantula) is the largest spider by mass and size!
• Sloth Life: The Bradypus (three-toed sloth) is so well adapted to its slow-moving, arboreal lifestyle in the South American canopy that algae actually grows in its fur, providing excellent camouflage against predators like the Harpy Eagle.
Class Subject: Species Identification
This fun geography learning game answers questions such as: What animals live in South America? Where do flamingos live?
Animals Featured in the Game:
Manta Ray
Albatross
Armadillo
Bradypus
(Three-toed sloth)
Capybara
Tarantula
Scarlet Macaw
Turtle
Toco Toucan
Guinea Pig
Piranha
Cane Toad
Anaconda
Morpho Butterfly
Flamingo
+ 3 Decoys!
(Can you spot them?)
