Fertile Crescent

Climate: Hot Semi-Arid

The Fertile Crescent region has been called 'The Cradle of Life'. This region has undergone diverse climatic changes which has encouraged the evolution of the 8 Neolithic founder crops: Emmer wheat, Einkorn, Barley, Flax, Chick Pea, Pea, Lentil, Bitter Vetch. Four of the five most important species of animals were domesticated here: Cows, Goats, Sheep, and Pigs. The fifth species, the horse, lived nearby.

The area is important as the "bridge" between Africa and Eurasia. This "bridging role" has allowed the Fertile Crescent to retain a greater amount of biodiversity than either Europe or North Africa, where climate changes during the Ice Age led to repeated extinction events due to ecosystems becoming squeezed against the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. This Middle Eastern land-bridge is of extreme importance to the modern distribution of Old World flora and fauna, including the spread of humanity. The fact that this area has borne the brunt of the tectonic divergence between the African and Arabian plates, and the converging Arabian and Eurasian plates, has also made this region a very diverse zone of high snow-covered mountains, fertile broad alluvial basins and desert plateau, which has also increased its biodiversity further and enabled the survival into historic times of species not found elsewhere.