Shining peaks and blood-red desert wastes. Canyons that overwhelm the human scale. Big Bend National Park is an international destination, and a West Texas wonder. Its landscapes have the power to awe and humble.

But scientists have found that these landscapes also tell a vivid story of the past: of seawaters teeming with life, of lush forests alive with dinosaurs, of ancient mammals beneath fiery volcanos.

At the park's Fossil Discovery Exhibit, opened in 2017, visitors enter this epic story.

It's hidden below a ridge, to leave vistas unobstructed. But turning east from the Persimmon Gap road, 8 miles north of Panther Junction, the exhibit comes into view.

Big Bend boast more ki...