What's Hidden Under the Trees of the Amazon Rainforest?

Select video clips courtesy of Getty Images

Select video clips courtesy of the AP Archive

Special thanks to MapTiler, OpenStreetMap Contributors, and GEOlayers

Further reading and articles/sources mentioned in this video:

[hostedbysimples]

I was born in Belém (Brazil) in the outskirts of the Amazon, lived there until I was about 12, before moving to Portugal. I thought it was as completely normal to have rain for every 2 days except in droughts and everyday in the rainy season.
When I got to Portugal I was so surprised that you could go a entire month without a single waterdrop, I genuinely questioned how could any plant grow on that environment, and assumed I was living in a extension of the Sahara.
Until I got a geography class and learned that I was living in one of the most extreme zones of precipitation on earth.

[POGEYMANZFTW]

You should do one of these on the Congo. It gets overshadowed by the Amazon but it's just as fascinating and unexplored.

[dijon]

Plants in regular forests:
Savings, 401K, benefits

Plants in the Amazon:
Paycheck to paycheck

[jimmyliendo]

Here in Bolivia, historians knew about the "hydraulic cultures of Moxos", called that because they built very complex acuatic infrastructures to drain the surrounding area of the settlements during the heavy floods. We knew they were a complex civilization of Arawak origin who built realtively big settlements in artificial hills to avoid said floods. The common hypothesis of their dissapearance is that they were conquered and assymilated by the Chiriguano-Guaranies who came from the south around the 15th century. But the 2022 discovery is the first time we had a setlement discovered of that monumental scale, and i hope there will be more discoveries and investigations to get a clear view of this culture.

[dylanalexander]

I can’t imagine the excitement when the team viewed the initial maps from the LIDAR. I bet everyone in the room went nuts

[bucketheadkfc]

Me: "what's under the trees?"

Reallifelore: "before I explain, I must first tell you the entire history of the world"

[yaagodourado]

What's hidden in the Amazon rainforest? Me! I live in Manaus lmao

[senorchivo]

video: Lake Mega Chad
me: wut?
video: fertilizes from across an ocean
me: name checks out

[presidenttogekiss]

A quick lesson of Portuguese phonetics:
In Portuguese, unlike in English, the emphasis on the words tends to be on last part of the word, not in the beggining, as it commonly is in English.
So for example, Real Life Lore pronounces it XINgu, with emphasis on the Xin, but its actually pronounced XinGU, with emphasis on the Gu.
This is also where the common brazilian accent in english comes from: less english proficient brazilian instinctively put emphasis on the last syllable of words.
The word Hospital, for example, is written the same in both languages.
But in english its pronounced HOSpital, whereas in portuguese, it´s HospiTAL.

[camerontatro]

The fact that the mapinguari has one eye in the legends is most likely a big sign that the giant ground sloths are extinct and the indigenous peoples are finding fossils/skeletons. They most likely mistook the large sinus cavity for an eye and the gaping rib cage as a mouth on the stomach. Its the explination for cyclopse myths in rome due to extinct micro elephants that lived on islands in the Mediterranean

[matheusilva]

As an Brazilian, it's always a pleasure to see our country being mentioned or talked about in your videos. Thanks for one of your best videos in recent time

[blockchiken]

I never thought I'd see the day that we'd get a RealLifeLore video that doesn't mention the Bab El-Mandeb Strait

[Sweet..letssurf]

Crazy that youtube Demonetized this video on you… I’m only 1/2 through and have been blow away at least 4 times.. great research

[ViciousViscount]

Poland briefly mentioned, now I'm hooked.

[luizdarochaanace]

Brazilian from the north east here( the dryer part of Brazil), Manaus is actually the center of production of most big international tech companies, Samsung, Sony and even Microsoft have factories in that city. Both my PS4 and galaxy book 2 were made in that city. And it's a big city like any other, has tall buildings, heavy traffic and things all other Brazilian capitals have

[gregoriofeitosa]

So... Brazilian here. Born, raised and living on Manaus. Hi, lads

[FrankiePhoenix]

Ya know, most other animals would consider the Amazon Rainforest to be the most large and densely populated city filled with more life than any other place on this planet. They would probably consider that there are many ways to transport themselves through the area, whether it's through river or tree top, with easy food access. It's so fun to see you talk about how remote and isolated these places are for us when they are brimming with life.

[swapshots]

This channel is so awesome. I have learned a ton if stuff from around the world. I'm 68 and love learning.

[AchyutChaudhary]

*Please dear RLL team…continue making MORE of these long-form Geography & History videos too going ahead (I like your GeoPolitics series too…but want to see you cover more subjects like in the pre-2020 days)!*

[jonathanhole]

Disappointed that you did not credit the most famous of explorers, Dora.