Kotelnich the uniqueness of the landmark, the only comparable sight being Karoo, South Africa. Annually Russian and foreign scientists find skeleton fragments and bones of ancient animals of the Permian period of Palaeozoic era, Triassic and Jurassic periods of Mesozoic era. Paleontological museum of Kotelnich was opened in 1994. It exhibits both the findings from the excavation site in Kotelnich, and the replicas of the most famous findings from Germany, the USA, and Mongolia. The exposition of the museum shows the global geological and evolution processes that took place on Earth about 200 million years ago. The workers of the museum
Rainbow Basin of its rock formations: its fossil beds, which have provided scientists with valuable information about life during the middle Miocene epoch, between 12 and 16 million years ago; and to the northeast the Calico Early Man Site. Underneath Rainbow Basin is the massive batholith that lies below much of the western Mojave (Dibblee 1968:15). Made from a type of rock called quartz monzonite, this batholith dates to either the Cretaceous, or possibly the late Jurassic period (Dibblee 1967:43). Early in the Cenozoic Era this batholith was exposed in the area surrounding Rainbow Basin and bent downward as it underwent compression,