Sebastian Belmar reporting from Chile: Animals of Chile En Espanol   I have always be fascinated with the animal kingdom, in fact it was this fascination that has lead me to my current study of biology. From when I was little I wanted to learn the names of all the animals and what they were able to do. There are many different types of animals in the long country of Chile, believe me, the list is long! We have whales, Dolphins, porpoises swimming along the long coastline; foxes, pumas, smaller cats and many other smaller species of animals roaming from the edge of the ocean to the heights of the Andes Mountains. In fact there are four different types of camels roaming throughout the northern heights of Chile. Wait a minute; I bet you are thinking, camels in South America? Don’t camels and dromedary’s live in the deserts of Africa and China? You are right, if that is what you think. However, there are smaller species of camels that inhabit a large part of Chile. These species include Guanacos, the llamas, the alpacas, and the vicunas. Let me continue to create a list of animals from Chile. There are three different types of green parrots, I am not sure of their English names but here they are in Spanish as Loros tricahue, Choroy, and Cachana. These birds live and fly over the center and south of Chile. The Andean Condor also flies overhead in Chile; this is one of the largest birds in the world. There are also marsupials in Chile. Yes I did say marsupials, although most people think that you will find marsupials in only in Australia. In fact marsupials live primarily in Australia and Chile (although there is one species in North America, the opossum). Let us consider for a moment how these marsupials and camels came to live in Chile. There is a theory that at one time all continents were attached together forming on big continent, which has been named Pangea. Life began on this large landmass, but since then this land mass has divided and spread out. This has occurred over millions of years. The first major divisions of Pangea created North America, Eurasia, and Gondwana (which includes modern day Australia, Africa, and South America). The theory continues to suggest that some of the animal lineages originated on this continent before it was divided into smaller areas. This would explain the presence, for example, of marsupials in Chile and Australia. At my university, the Catholic University of Chile, there are a number of researchers trying to reconstruct the past in order to answer these questions concerning the presence of marsupials and camels in South America. By studying the South American and African Camels and marsupials, from Chile and Australia, scientists are able to reconstruct the evolutionary lines of these animals, thus gaining more insight about these animals and the history of the planet.