Luis Quinta / Looking up root system and tree trunk in Amazon forest, Rio Negro, Brazil, December 2009.

Pete Oxford / Buttress roots (Ficus sp.)in rainforest, Cocaya River, eastern Amazon, Ecuador

Pete Oxford / Buttress roots, Mapari, Rupununi, Guyana

Theo Allofs / Buttress roots of giant trees in tropical rainforest, Tongkoko Reserve, Sulawesi, Indonesia

Pete Oxford / Buttress root in rainforest with photographer Pete Oxford standing beneath it, Sacha Lodge, Amazon Rain Forest, Ecuador

Nick Garbutt / Male Three-horned Rhinoceros beetle {Chalcosoma mollenkampi} on buttress root, lowland rain forest, Danum Valley, Sabah, Borneo.

Pete Oxford / Tarantula (Theraphosidae) on buttress root of fig tree. Yasuni NP, Ecuador, Central America

Pete Oxford / Tarantula (Theraphosidae) on buttress root of fig tree (Ficus sp.). Yasuni NP, Ecuador, Central America

Pete Oxford / Tarantula (Theraphosidae) on buttress root of fig tree (Ficus sp.). Yasuni NP, Ecuador

Pete Oxford / Tarantula on buttress root of Ficus (fig) species tree, Yasuni NP, Ecuador

Pete Oxford / Ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) standing on buttress root on the forest floor in the Amazon rainforest, Ecuador

Pete Oxford / Ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) standing on buttress root on the forest floor in the Amazon rainforest, Ecuador