Madeira: Island Ark – Islands of Evolution
This is a very interesting documentary about the nature of Madeira Island.
Contents:
- Laurisilva Forest – 4′
- Stink Laurel – 7′
- plants usually small evolved in Madeira to giant plants. – 8′
- the biggest spider of Europe, Hogna ingens, the Deserta Grande wolf spider – 12′
- Lava Tubes, caves where once flowed red hot liquid fused volcanic rock – 19′
- Thalassophilus pieperi, a cavernicolous carabid beetle – 22′
- Snails – 23′
- Madeiran Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs maderensis) – 24′
- The arrival of humans in 1419 – 27′
- Charles Darwin in the “Origin of Species” refer to Madeira more often than to Galapagos- 28′
- Wollaston (a friend of Darwin) spent many years in Madeira studying endemic insects
- The extinct Large White Butterfly Pieris brassicae wollastoni – 29′
- The flightless endemic beetle Meloe austrinus – 30′
- “Wollaston noted that of the 550 beetle species he was aware of in Madeira, 200 were flightless”
- Human impact on endemic species, crops – 31′
- The Madeiran Wall Lizard Lacerta dugesii – 32′
- Geological time periods. Cliffs seen from sea, the tip of a huge sea mountain – 36′
- Aquatic mammals, dolphins – 37′
- Geologic Weathering. Balls of basalt – 38′
- Fish of deep water. Peixe Espada – 41′
- Marine Biological Station of Funchal. The tiny male of the Anglerfish Centrophryne spinulosa – 43′
- Diving underwater. Starfishes, Sea Urchins. Decline of numbers of endemic invertebrates – 45′
- Bryozoans. Invasive species brought by ships. – 48′
- Deepwater long-snouted lancetfish stomach contents – 50′
