Natural Wonders

Natural Wonders: Great and Small Places Angel Falls Auroras Grand Canyon Great Barrier Reef Mount Everest Coastal Redwoods and Flowers Pictures of Beaches Mountain Pictures Living Things Black Witch Moth Blue Whales Coastal Redwoods and Flowers Leatherback Sea Turtles Types of Pine Cones

Most people are familiar with the term, the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.

Although differences exist over which places should make the list, size is traditionally one element uniting most natural wonders lists.

While Mount Everest and the Grand Canyon are beautiful places in and of themselves they often make the list because of their status as largest of some category.

Any attempt to piece together a natural wonders presentation must bear in mind that while big and spectacular often go hand in hand, bigger does not always mean better.

Consider the Sequoia pine cone. Often no bigger than three inches in length, it marks a beginning for perhaps the next world's largest tree.

From the lilies of the fields and forests to the mountains they grow on, the album expands on the natural wonders theme.

The bigs of the natural world that commonly make the natural wonders list, such as the Grand Canyon, and the natural phenomena known as Auroras are presented. They are complimented by other bigs of the natural world such as Leatherback Sea Turtles, the largest turtles in the world.

In some instances such as the Coastal Redwoods gallery, a combination of the tallest trees in the world sits comfortably with the surrounding flora. The top pictures shows a Coastal Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens).

In other instances the small and moderate sized natural wonders are presented to demonstrate that the world's natural wonders can literally be found anywhere in the world.

Natural Wonders: Fast Facts

• The world's smallest snake, Leptotyphlops carlae, measures less than four inches and lives on the island of Barbados.
• The world's smallest bird, the Bee Hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae), measures about two inches long and lives in Cuba.
• The world's smallest fish, the stout infantfish, measures about one-quarter of an inch long and lives in the Great Barrier Reef of Australia.
• The world's smallest mammal is the Kitli's Hog-nosed Bat, Craseonycteris thonglongyai, from Thailand.

© 2009 Patricia A. Michaels