The current landform is younger than the rocks it is made of.

This distinction matters because it changes what the mountain’s age actually means.

The tepuis are not unchanged remnants of a Precambrian world, preserved intact since the ancient seas deposited their sediments.

They are the current result of an ongoing process — the differential erosion that has been sculpting these ancient rocks for eons, wearing away the surrounding softer material while the more resistant sandstone persists.

Think of it this way: if you carve a sculpture from an ancient piece of marble, the marble is old, but the sculpture is new.