The techniques needed to extract fossil and climatic evidence from this lake bed, and to search for life forms that have adapted to survive in such hostile conditions, would also work on Mars so it is an ideal location to test robots and even to train would-be astronauts.
On the lake's northern shore, a fossil of a giant femur bone, bigger than an adult man, leans against a rock-face and signals your arrival at the Lago Barreales Paleontological Center.