The place:
Santana formation is found along the edge of the Araripe Basin in north-eastern Brazil on the boundary of the states of Ceara, Pernambuco and Piaui.

The finds:
The fossils of the Santana Formation are nearly all found in the hard limestone nodules that occur at certain levels within the formation. Although these can be difficult to crack open, the fossils they contain are often excellently preserved. The nodules mostly contain fishes and invertebrates, but also occasionally reptile remains. Even the light, hollow bones of pterosaurs, such as Ornithocheirus and Tapejara, have been found uncrushed.

The environment:
In the Early Cretaceous period the Santana Formation was deposited in warm, shallow, salty lagoons close to land. The lagoons were flooded by the sea creating a combination of limestones and sandstone in which animal remains were buried. When the rocks of the Santana Formation were deposited this area was on the western coast of the super continent of Gondwanaland made up of South America joined to Africa.

The people:
The fossils of the Santana Formation were discovered in 1819 by two Bavarian explorers, JB Spix and CFP Martius, as they struggled through what was then completely uncharted country. News of the exceptionally well-preserved fish fossils spread rapidly and since then many palaeontologists have studied the fossils. The first pterosaur remains were found in 1971 by the Brazilian palaeontologist Llewellyn Price who identified a species very similar to Ornithocheirius. .