The Painted Desert’s colorful mesas, buttes, and badlands were carved by wind and running water from the Chinle Formation, deposited more than 200 million years ago when this area was a vast inland basin near sea level, and their varied hues reflect both the ancient conditions in which the sediments were laid down and the minerals within the rocks. Exposed in a broad arc east of Grand Canyon southeastward toward St. Johns, Arizona, by the erosional force of the Little Colorado River, this formation also preserves a valuable Late Triassic fossil record of plants and animals ranging from ferns and shellfish to amphibians and dinosaurs, drawing scientists from around the world. Finding and recovering these fossils requires geological and paleontological expertise, luck, and painstaking care, because they often lie in remote areas far from museums, universities, and roads, and their size, weight, age, and fragility make excavation and transport difficult. Researchers may first spot a fragment of bone protruding from a cliff or bank, then remove the surrounding earth with picks and shovels followed by dental tools and brushes, harden the bones with a chemical solution, encase them in burlap and plaster bandages for shipment, and document each step with drawings and photographs to aid later reconstruction for study and exhibition.