Quito, July 23, 2026. QuitoAn international study published in Scientific Data (Nature Portfolio) has just revealed that the cloud forests of the Andean Chocó harbor a dimension of biodiversity that had until now remained invisible to science. Thanks to the use of high-throughput DNA sequencing technologies, scientists recorded organisms in the Mashpi-Tayra Reserve that had never been documented before, providing evidence that a significant portion of the planet’s biodiversity remains undescribed.
The project was part of the Global Malaise Trap Program, a scientific initiative led by the Centre for Biodiversity Genomics at the University of Guelph (Canada), which brings together nearly 50 countries to study how arthropod communities change using high-throughput DNA sequencing technologies. In Ecuador, the study was led by the National Institute of Biodiversity (INABIO), in collaboration with the Mashpi-Tayra Reserve, national and international researchers, and various academic institutions.
As part of a study that analyzed 952,087 specimens across ten sites in Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Panama, scientists identified 45,812 genetic units (BINs). In the Mashpi-Tayra Reserve alone, more than 8,000 genetic units were recorded, 7,850 of which were unique to the site, surpassing the documented records in Guanacaste (Costa Rica) and quadrupling those of Barro Colorado (Panama), two of the most extensively studied tropical forests on the continent.
During one year of monitoring in the reserve, thousands of samples of insects, arachnids, and other arthropods were collected using standardized traps. Subsequently, each organism was analyzed using DNA Barcoding, a technology that makes it possible to identify species from small DNA sequences, even when they are microscopic or have not yet been scientifically described. This process made it possible to record organisms that had previously remained invisible to traditional research, opening up new opportunities to understand the evolution and conservation of these ecosystems.
The data generated were incorporated into the international Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) platform, making them openly accessible to researchers around the world. This contribution strengthens knowledge of the biodiversity of the Andean Chocó and establishes Mashpi-Tayra as one of Ecuador’s most active biological research stations, with 26 new species discovered and more than 70 scientific publications produced since the project was established.
This discovery coincides with the eighth anniversary of the Chocó Andino’s designation as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and reaffirms Mashpi-Tayra’s role as a natural laboratory where conservation, scientific research, and sustainable tourism work together to uncover and protect forms of life that until recently remained unknown.
