Its extreme remoteness meant that it was only confirmed as Venezuela’s highest point in the 1950s, and it remains one of the least-visited tepuis.

Its biological communities are correspondingly poorly known, and expeditions that have reached the summit have consistently found species not previously described to science.

The comparison between these tepui systems illustrates the principle of island biogeography: each tepui has developed its own specific community of endemic species, and the degree of overlap between summit communities reflects the degree of connection between them.

Nearby tepuis share more species than distant ones, consistent with the expectation that occasional long-distance dispersal events are more likely between closer summits.