Mexico

Mexico is one of the planet's megadiverse countries and the point where the fauna and flora of North America meet those of the American tropics. Its two Sierra Madre ranges enclose a highland of scrub and pine-oak forest holding more pine and oak species than anywhere else in the world, while the south harbours rainforest and cloud forest. Baja California combines desert with coastal lagoons where gray whales calve after crossing the whole Pacific, and the Yucatán peninsula hides beneath its limestone platform the largest flooded cave system on the planet. The Gulf of California, with its high productivity, was called the aquarium of the world by Jacques Cousteau.