Meet the Author/Artist, Veronica Murrell Second, the Sonoran

Desert Region has

many different
habitats for a variety
of plants and
When Veronica Murrell was a senior at BASIS Tucson North animals.
High School, she dreamed of the perfect Senior Internship
project that combined her two passions: biology and art. She
had just taken a class that introduced her to the ecology of Mountains and From forests to rivers, grasslands to scrub,
the Sonoran Desert, and she was hooked. She contacted the canyons create there’s more to the Sonoran Desert Region
Desert Museum’s Conservation Education and Science cooler, wetter than just sand and rocks.
Department about her vision – creating a non-fiction graphic climates for living
novel on native plants and wildlife. Her pitch: graphic novels things to call
put information in an understandable and entertaining form home.
so that even young children can learn about this region. Her
idea became a reality throughout the spring as Veronica
participated in school and family programs, attended docent
interpretations, and spent many hours observing and drawing
desert life around the museum grounds. Her project focus
became the biodiversity of the Sonoran Desert Region and
plant/animal adaptations to the desert. This book you hold is
Coati Jaguar and Thick-billed
her finished product! Thank you, Veronica, for your hard work Ocelot Parrot
and dedication to creating this wonderful resource for
students to learn about the Sonoran Desert!

Even though these animals

are more common in
Last, many tropical species reach
the southern edge of the Sonoran warmer, wetter areas, they
Desert from Mexico’s Sierra Madre live in the Sonoran Desert
Mountains. Here they mix with Region.
temperate species from the north.
5
The Sonoran Desert
The Amazing
is unique. It is more
diverse than most
deserts on the Sonoran Desert
planet and has
species you can’t
find anywhere else.
It’s a wide, wide
desert out there, so
get outside,
explore, and learn
more!

A Mini Graphic Novel

By Veronica Murrell and the Conservation
Education and Science Department of the

6
 Rain clouds form from
Biodiversity is the variety of life
ocean water in the Pacific
in an area, and the Sonoran
Ocean and Gulf of
Desert Region has a lot—
California.

As the clouds
move over
land and up
mountains,
they let out the
water as rain.

over 50 types and 4 kinds of

of snakes, skunks,
The mountains act
like a wall and
squeeze out all of
the clouds’ water
before it can The other part of the answer
reach the desert. has to do with how water
moves around the globe, but around 700 bee
that is another story. species, just to name a few.
Despite the dry
climate, this desert
is very biodiverse. It isn’t just luck
But what is that so many
biodiversity? different plants
and animals live
here, though.

Desert Discovery Program Materials ©2019, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum 2 Desert Discovery Program Materials ©2019, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum 3

There are three
main reasons why
this desert is so bio-
diverse – rainfall,
When brittlebush cacti stand tall, and green palo verde
habitat variety, trees offer shade, you
rises from the
rocky soil, know you are in the
Sonoran Desert.

and a mix of
species from the
north and south.
CA AZ
It has two
rainy seasons—
one in the UNITED STATES
summer...
BC
SON
The Sonoran Desert ...and one in
gets more rain than the winter. MEXICO
BCS
other deserts.
The Sonoran Desert is hot and dry,
SONORAN DESERT so most plants and animals here
All together the have adaptations that allow them
Sonoran Desert to thrive without much water.
gets about 12 ButBut
why whyis the desert
is the so so
desert
inches of rain a dry?dry?
PartPart
of the answer
of the is
answer
year, which because of the of
is because rain-
the
makes it much shadow
rainshadow effect.
effect.
easier for animals
and plants to
thrive here.

Desert Discovery Program Materials ©2019, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum 4 Desert Discovery Program Materials ©2019, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum 1