North and South America. This map, drawn in 1540 by by Sebastian Münster, was the very first printed map that called the great body of water to the west of the land by the name Pacific.

The maps, of course, depict a mistake: They show California as an island off the coast of North America, reflecting the beliefs of some explorers and cartographers from the 17th and 18th centuries.

One of the most widespread misconceptions in the 16th century involved an area of the mostly unexplored continent of North America, a place called California, which mapmakers often portrayed as an ...

It’s the most detailed map of its kind so far. Animals like the black-footed ferret and California condor are represented, but so are groups often left out of such analyses: species of bees ...