The current cliff walls and isolated summit plateaus are the product of long-term erosion that has been reducing the tepui formations over geological time.

In the distant geological past — tens or hundreds of millions of years ago — the tepuis may not have been isolated in the way they are today.

The surrounding landscape may have been at a higher elevation, closer to the summit level, allowing organisms to move more freely between what are now isolated summits and surrounding lowland habitats.

As erosion progressively lowered the surrounding landscape while the resistant tepui rock persisted, the summits became progressively more isolated.

Populations that had once been connected across a broad highland landscape became separated as the surrounding terrain was worn away.