I will be retuning off and on to the “Walking in the Mesozoic Formations” this year. Here is the first for 2023.

“Walking in the Chinle Formation”

In the Triassic, 220 Million years ago in the region that will become The Petrified Forrest National Park in Arizona, a girl from the Puebloan People walks with a herd of Placerias. A reptile mammal relative who were once the dominant animal in the Triassic. The girl holds a photo-mammal called Kataigidodon with more on the back of a Placerias. Behind the Placarias heard, a family of armored Desmatosuchus drinks from the stream, another uses his shovel-like snot to dig up a fern. Amoungst the Desmatosuchus, a rambunctious water predator called Vancleavea chases a crayfish called Enoplocytia. Behind the two heards in the ferns are two reptiles, a herbivore called Revueltosaurus munches in leaves while a Hesperosuchus hunts for prey. Emerging from the tress is a giant Postosuchus, the apex predator, but not the largest retile in the formation carries his latest victim, a crocodile-relative called Shuvosaurus.

On the Opposite bank, the biggest reptile of the formation sunbathes. The Corcadile, Smilosuchus. Paying no attention to the group of Typothorax, another armored herbivore. In the stream are a pair of the giant amphibians called Anarchisma. Comes out with a Arganodus fish.

On the island in the foreground is the sole Dinosaur in the picture. A Coelophysis looks on with another Kataigidodon slinks by. In the background is at the burned the remains of a recent forrest fire. The petrified wood floating in the stream will become the fossils that will give the Petrified Forrest National Forrest it’s name.

I hope you like it and I am open to feedback and critiques.

Walking in the Chinle Formation