Is the total of all the genetically based variation in all organisms in the biosphere.

The most important causes of megadiversity in Mexico are: *Topography *Its variety of climates *Its complex geological, biological and cultural history.

In Mexico and in the entire world the benefits of the biodiversity for humans are: -Air quality -Climate -Water purification -Pollination -Prevention of erosion -Ecotourism

In the field of human health, biodiversity has led to the development of drugs that come from plants. Biodiversity also helps humans in the agricultural, business, and industrial sectors. In agriculture, diversity among crops helps to reduce weakness to disease and to improve overall hardiness and crop performance.

Beyond these advantages to biodiversity conservation, most ecological systems that humans need to survive also rely on a biologically diverse ecosystem to operate. This is true for purifying water, the recycling of nutrients in soil, and the pollination of flowers, among many other things.

All life on earth depends on a varied and diverse natural environment, and naturally, that includes humans as well.

Under Mexican law the blue agave is the only plant that can be used in the making of tequila. Tequila farms are found mainly in Jalisco, Mexico, at an elevation of around 1500 meters. In the wild, they flower at about five years old. It is a terminal flower, and having flowered they die. In cultivation, this is undesirable.

The stem that would have borne the flowers is removed so that the core of the plant will continue to grow, this being the part from which tequila is made. They are usually twelve years old before their cores are harvested.

It is the country's national symbol yet the Golden Eagle is close to extinction in Mexico. One of the largest raptors or birds of prey in the world, the Golden Eagle's wingspan can reach lengths greater than two meters. Only the Bald Eagle and the California Greater exceed it in size in North America. With its powerful hooked bill and long and sharp claws it can sometimes capture prey of a size that is surprising for its size, including crane, wild ungulates and domestic livestock, though more often than not it tends to feed off small mammals such as rabbits, hares, ground squirrels and prairie dogs as well as reptiles and small-to-medium sized birds.

Pachico Mayoral, a Mexican fisherman form Baja California, claims to be the first person to have a friendly encounter with a gray whale. Up until then this enormous cetacean - an adult can reach a length of 16 meters and weigh in at 36 tons - had been known as the devil fish for its aggressive behavior when hunted. Over its lifetime, it is estimated that an Eastern Pacific gray whale will travel the equivalent of a return trip to the moon.

The largest cat in the Western Hemisphere, the jaguar can be found mainly in the tropical forests of Chiapas and the Yucatan peninsula. The jaguar's list of prey is long: it can hunt anything from whitenosed coati to larger mammals such as deer.

Each year, between December and March, these orange and black-patterned butterflies, the size of an adult human hand, congregate in numbers of up to 250 million in a pine and oyamel tree forest in Michoacan in Central Mexico. They migrate approximately 3,000 miles from the border between northeastern United States and Canada and their gathering to breed in Mexico is considered one of the most extraordinary sights in the natural world.

Closely related to squirrels, chipmunks and marmots, the Mexican prairie dog is a burrowing mammal found in northeastern Mexico. The Mexican prairie dog feeds on the herbs and grasses of the plains of northeastern Mexico and lives in "towns" - excavated colonies of up to 50 individuals which are ruled by a single alpha male.

We need to preserve as many individual species as we can and we also need to preserve as many different types of ecosystem as we can, because each one serves a different and important function.

Is the total of all the genetically based variation in all organisms in the biosphere.

*Topography *Its variety of climates *Its complex geological, biological and cultural history.

-Air quality -Climate -Water purification -Pollination -Prevention of erosion -Ecotourism

Is the only plant that can be used in the making of tequila.

Jalisco, Mxico

Golden Eagle Gray Whale Jaguar Monarch butterfly Mexican Prairie Dog

Baja California, Mxico

In the tropical forests of Chiapas and the Yucatan peninsula.

An adult human hand

Feeds on the herbs and grasses of the plains of northeastern Mxico