The convergence of carnivory in nutrient-poor environments is one of the best examples in nature of what biologists call convergent evolution: the independent development of similar traits in response to similar environmental pressures.

The Animals That Live Above The Clouds

The isolation of the tepui summits has been operating on their plant and animal communities for an enormous period of time.

The result is a set of species so specifically adapted to summit conditions, and so long separated from their lowland relatives, that many of them are found nowhere else on Earth.

The most famous example from Roraima is the Roraima bush toad (Oreophrynella quelchii), a small toad that was described scientifically from specimens collected on Roraima’s summit and is found only there.

This is not a toad that occasionally visits the summit and descends to breed.