The researchers exploring the shore of the Bristol Channel below the cliffs in Somerset, England. At low tide, you can walk along a shore of solid rock and inspect sedimentary rocks lain down over eons, documenting a time when this spot lay at the bottom of a shallow sea, just before the dinosaurs’ rise some 200 million years ago. The layers can be read like pages in a book; geologists have been coming here to study them since the 19th century, but Olsen and Kent think modern analysis techniques may reveal more. Credit: Kevin Krajick, Columbia University