Tiny wingless ants - first found in 2004 in the Amazonian flooded forests near Iquitos - can save themselves from a fall from the rainforest canopy by executing a 180-degree mid-air turn, landing on the trunk, safely above the forest floor. It is thought the ants - which can grow up to a centimetre long - use visual cues and leg movements to perform their death-defying spins.

Steve Yanoviak

It's a living fossil, this deciduous Chinese tree with unique fan-shaped leaves; its ancestors thrived in temperate areas 270 million years ago. It is now cultivated widely in Asia for its seeds, valued for food and medicine. Its beauty and hardy constitution - four survived the Hiroshima bomb - makes it popular in cities too.

BIOS M.G. de Saint Venant/Still Pictures

Over 50 species of tree-dwelling kangaroo live in the rainforests of New Guinea and Queensland, Australia. Like their grounded cousins, they have strong hind legs. But these are attached to short, rounded bodies, longer claws, rubbery soles, and independently moving back feet - which help them climb, leap from tree to tree, and jump to the ground without getting hurt.

Martin Harvey/Still Pictures

One of the great sights of Amazonia, it swims among the trees of the flooded forests during the wet season, feeding on small fish and crabs. Some legends hold that the pink to greyish boto, as it is also called, embodies the spirits of the drowned, giving it some protection from hunters. Still, it is vulnerable to threats like mercury poisoning from gold mining.

Norbert Wu/Still Pictures