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Trinidad and Tobago are continental islands with a geologically very recent history of direct land bridge connection to South America. As a result, unlike most of the Caribbean Islands, Trinidad and Tobago supports a primarily South American flora and fauna and has greater diversity of plant and animal species than the Antilles. However, rates of endemism are lower than in the rest of the Caribbean because there has been less time for genetic isolation from mainland populations because of the history of land bridge connections and hence fewer opportunities for speciation, and so a greater proportion of the species in Trinidad and Tobago are also found on the South American mainland. Trinidad is nearer to mainland South America and has been directly connected to the mainland via land bridges more often and for longer periods than Tobago. This, as well as Trinidad's larger size and more varied topography and hydrology compared to that of Tobago allow greater species and ecosystem diversity on the former compared to that on the later of the islands. == Plant communities == The standard description of plant communities follows John Beard's work (Beard, 1946). He classified natural vegetation in a hierarchical fashion on the basis of the physiognomy of the dominant trees. * Seasonal Formations * * Evergreen Seasonal Forest * * Semi-Deciduous Seasonal Forest * * Deciduous Seasonal Forest * Dry Evergreen Formations * * Littoral Woodland * Montane Formations * * Lower Montane Forest * * Montane Forest * * Elfin Woodland * Edaphic Formations * * Mangrove Forest * * Palm Swamp * * Seasonal Swamp Forest * * Seasonal Swamp Savanna * * Herbaceous Swamp : ''See also: Trinidad and Tobago dry forests'' 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Natural history of Trinidad and Tobago」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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