Minorca: a mosaic of biodiversity
The island of Menorca is 50 km long and has 12,000 km of stone walls that divide the territory and promote the simultaneous presence of tilled fields, crops, forests, bushes and meadows. The island is also dotted with about 100 temporary ponds populated by many aquatic organisms. One of the more relevant is the tadpole shrimp (Triops cancriformis), a small crustacean that emerged 220 million years ago, and is considered a real living fossil. The geographical location, the stone walls and the traditional economy determined a high biodiversity, so that this island was declared a biosphere reserve by UNESCO.