Amazon biome Amazonas, Brazil contains campinarana, dense rainforest and contact between campinarana and rainforest. The vegetation formations include terra firme forests and igapós. Submontane forests climb the first steps of the Guiana Plateau to about , followed by montane forests. Lichens and bromeliads are found up to . There is also alpine tundra in the tabular plateaus. The Amazon basin contains several large areas of moist forest, collectively called the Amazon rainforest. These are the Caquetá, Japurá-Solimões-Negro, Juruá-Purus, Madeira-Tapajós, Napo, Purus-Madeira, Solimões-Japurá, Southwest Amazon, Tapajós-Xingu, Tocantins-Pindara, Uatuma-Trombetas, Ucayali and Xingu-Tocantins-Araguaia moist forests. Each has distinctive vegetation. In the broad definition favored by
Amazon rainforest Based on archaeological evidence from an excavation at Caverna da Pedra Pintada, human inhabitants first settled in the Amazon region at least 11,200 years ago. Subsequent development led to late-prehistoric settlements along the periphery of the forest by AD 1250, which induced alterations in the forest cover. For a long time, it was thought that the Amazon rainforest was only ever sparsely populated, as it was impossible to sustain a large population through agriculture given the poor soil. Archeologist Betty Meggers was a prominent proponent of this idea, as described in her book "Amazonia: Man and Culture in a Counterfeit