March Madness: Atlas Edition – Round Two

It’s time for Round Two of March Madness: Atlas Edition, right on the heels of the first round of the March Madness basketball playoffs beginning tomorrow, Tuesday, 19 March 2013. While players battle it out on the court, countries in our tournament are competing for the coveted title of “Country of the Year” based on statistics drawn at random from Oxford’s Atlas of the World: 19th Edition.

Last week we asked: Which country has the highest GDP per capita?

Check out the winners below! Did you get them right?

Madagascar vs. Democratic Republic of Congo             WINNER: Madagascar

Ethiopia vs. Burma (Myanmar)                                             WINNER: Burma (Myanmar)

Indonesia vs. India                                                                    WINNER: Indonesia

China vs. Japan                                                                            WINNER: Japan 

Italy vs. Greece                                                                            WINNER: Italy

Costa Rica vs. Turkey                                                                WINNER: Turkey 

Venezuela vs. Mexico                                                                WINNER: Mexico  

Australia vs. USA                                                                         WINNER: USA

For Round 2, we want to know: Which country has a higher level of endemism?

Madagascar vs. Burma (Myanmar)

Indonesia vs. Japan

Italy vs. Turkey

Mexico vs. USA

Endemic species, plants, and ecosystems refer to those which are unique to a specific country, such as the aye-aye lemur of Madagascar. It’s currently estimated that there are about 14 million species in the world, but only 2 million have been formally identified. Can you figure out which country has the higher level? To determine the winners in this week’s round, select the country with the highest level of endemism in each bracket. You can print out our Atlas bracket (below) and place your bets, or play along on