It is known only from three specimens, a specimen collected in 1898 in Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and identified by Herbert Huntingdon Smith, a specimen identified by the American ornithologist and entomologist Melbourne Armstrong Carriker in 1913 at the same location, and a further specimen observed in the same location in 2011. Found at altitudes of 700 to 2,000 metres, the species is endemic to Colombia in an isolated area with high levels of biodiversity. The species was initially identified as "Isothrix rufodorsalis" in 1899, re-classified as "Diplomys rufodorsalis" in 1935, and the monotypic genus "Santamartamys" was created in 2005 for the species.