Tepuis of Venezuela

view of tepuis from the helicopter.

Tepuis are made from resilient sandstone as the rest of the terrain goes away due to erosion.  They often have massive cliffs on their sides.  But biologically important is how far apart most of them are geographically as well as how they are separated from the lowland communities by the sheer walls on their sides.  That means, the further things are from each other, both by distance and elevation, the further away the biology gets.

Here I show a photo of some tepuis.  The photo was taken from a helicopter close to the top of one tepuis, shows a nearby tepui, and also shows one in the distance.  Ecologically it is is important to  understand the distance between these things, as species on one tepui are likely to be a different species on a different tepui giiven the time they have been geographically separated for many, many years..