Among amphibians, the proportion of tepui endemic species is very high — most frogs and toads found on tepui summits are not found anywhere else.

Among insects, the pattern is similar.

The microorganism communities of tepui soils and pools may have even higher endemism rates, though these communities are so incompletely studied that any estimate is preliminary.

The significance of this endemism for conservation is profound.

An endemic species, by definition, exists only in the specific place it evolved.

It has no other populations elsewhere that could recolonize if the local population is destroyed.

If the specific conditions that made a tepui summit the evolutionary home of a particular species are disrupted — by climate change, by invasive species, by too-intensive human disturbance — there is no backup.