ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

guiana shield

Okay kiddo, do you remember learning about maps? The world is divided into many different regions and one of them is called the Guiana Shield.

The Guiana Shield is a big area of land in South America, kind of like a big puzzle piece that fits into the top part of the continent. It covers parts of Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, and part of Brazil.

It's called a shield because the land is really old, like super super old. Hundreds of millions of years old! That means the rocks and mountains there have been around for a really long time.

The Guiana Shield is also a really important place for plants and animals. There are so many different kinds of creatures living there, like jaguars, monkeys, and parrots. There are also lots of rare plants that grow there and nowhere else in the world.

People have been living on the Guiana Shield for thousands of years, too. Indigenous groups, like the Yanomami, have lived there for generations and have adapted to the land and its resources.

So that's the Guiana Shield, it's a big and very old piece of land in South America that's home to many animals and rare plants, as well as people who have lived there for a very long time.