About 225 million years ago during the Triassic period, this region's dry plateau lands were tree-littered floodplains with a forested landscape. Crocodile-like phytosaurs inhabited the shores, other carnivorous reptiles hunted on land, and stormy floodwaters carried Triassic trees to the floodplains, where over time the trees petrified. Scientists study fossils found here to investigate the disappearance of Triassic species, the rise of dinosaurs that were then just appearing, and other mass extinctions through time.