Origins

Now how is it that the Amazon actually came about? There was a time when dinosaurs roamed the lands and earth was divided into two continents: Gondwana and Laurasia. It is Gondwana that most concerns this story, for it was on this land that a huge river existed flowing into the pacific. All was fine and dandy in the land of Gondwana, when one day, about 150 million years ago, the tectonic plates shifted and what is today South America split off and thus became a giant island. All looked glum for these primordial South Americans until they realized that this isolation was the perfect moment to increase biodiversity. Well, they probably never realized it, but it happened all the same. Marsupials and other primitive mammals began to fill up niches that were occupied by placental mammals elsewhere. And when the South American and Pacific plates rammed into each other, thus forming the Andes and transforming the great river into a great lake, they was even more reason to celebrate because marine animals were given the opportunity to evolve into freshwater dolphins and sting rays.

All was looking well for the Amazonians, until the South America decided to join forces with the North American continent some 5 million years ago. Placental mammals eager to inhabit new lands flooded the Amazon and caused most of their more primitive counter parts to go extinct. Despite this renewed sense of gloom, the South American continent progressed with its plans, and 3.4 million years later, she gently tilted herself so that the great lake may once become a river. Only this time the river would run into the Atlantic.