Talampaya National Park
I pedalled back into the desert to visit the first of two national parks – Talampaya. The park was established to protect both the important palaeontological and also archaeological sites in the area. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2000, Talampaya contains ‘the most complete continental fossil record known from the Triassic Period’ (between 251m and 199m years ago). In layman’s terms, the fossils found in the park provide a snapshot in time of the origins and early evolution on our planet of both dinosaurs and mammals.