- Ischigualasto
Infobox World Heritage Site
WHS = Ischigualasto / Talampaya Natural Parks
State Party = ARG
Type = Natural
Criteria = viii
ID = 966
Region = Latin America and the Caribbean
Year = 2000
Session = 24th
Link = http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/966Ischigualasto is a geological formation and a natural park associated with it in the province of San Juan, north-western
Argentina , near the border withChile . The Ischigualasto Provincial Park is located in the north-east of the province (coord|30|S|68|W|), and its northern border is theTalampaya National Park , in La Rioja, both of which belong to the same geological formation.Description
It has an area of convert|603.7|km2|sqmi|0|abbr=on, most of them within the
Valle Fértil Department , with a minor part in theJachal Department of San Juan, at analtitude of about convert|1300|m|ft|0|abbr=onabove mean sea level . The park is part of the western border of the Pampean Hills, and it features typical desert vegetation (bushes, cacti and some trees) which covers between 10 and 20% of the area. Theclimate is very dry, withrainfall mostly during the summer, andtemperature extremes (minimum -10 °C, maximum 45 °C). There is a constant southern wind with a speed of 20-40 km/h after noon and until the evening, sometimes accompanied by an extremely strongzonda wind .Importance
The Ischigualasto Formation contains Late
Triassic (Carnian ) deposits (230 million years before the present), with some of the oldest knowndinosaur remains, which are the world's first with regards to quality, number and importance. It is the only place in the world where nearly all of the Triassic is represented in an undisturbed sequence of rock deposits. This allows for the study of the transition betweendinosaur s and ancientmammal s; research is ongoing.The arid badlands around the formation are known as "Valle de la Luna" ("Valley of the Moon") due to their rugged, otherworldly appearance. In the Carnian this area was a volcanically active
floodplain dominated byriver s and had a strongly seasonalrainfall .Petrified tree trunks of "Protojuniperoxylon ischigualastianus" more than convert|40|m|ft|0|abbr=on tall attest to a rich vegetation at that time. Fossilfern s andhorsetail s have also been found.Rhynchosaur s andcynodont s are by far the predominant findings among the tetrapodfossils in the park.Dinosaur s comprise only 6% of the findings, but these include early samples of the two major lineages of dinosaurs (ornithischian s andsaurischian s). The carnivorousarchosaur "Herrerasaurus " is the most numerous of these dinosaur fossils. Another important putative dinosaur with primitive characteristics is "Eoraptor lunensis ", found in Ischigualasto in the early 1990s.ee also
*
List of dinosaur-bearing rock formations References
"In Spanish unless otherwise noted."
* [http://www.lahueya.com.ar/index/parques/ischigualasto.htm Parque Provincial Ischigualasto] .
* [http://www.argentinaxplora.com/destinos/sanjuan/valuna.htm ArgentinaXplora.com] - Valle de la Luna - Ischigualasto.
* [http://www.ischigualasto.com/es/ischigualasto.htm Ischigualasto.com] - La importancia científica de Ischigualasto.
* [http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/966 UNESCO World Heritage Centre] - Description of the Ischigualasto-Talampaya site (in English).
* [http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/mesozoic/triassic/ischigualasto.html Berkeley University] - Localities of the Triassic: Ischigualasto Formation, Argentina (in English).
* [http://www.ischigualasto.org/nuevoischi/ischigualasto/index.htm Ente Autárquico Ischigualasto] - Official website of the park's administration.
* [http://www.cuyonoticias.com CuyoNoticias digital newspaper] .
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