A PRESTON lecturer is back to the future after a two-week dig in 'Triassic Park'.

Gordon Fletcher, a fine art lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire, camped out in the 'Valley of the Moon' desert, in Ischigualasto, Argentina, for the archeological trip last month.

He spent the days chipping at 240million-year-old rocks for fossils.

And by end of the expedition Gordon had provided palaeontologists with a mass of new evidence on the origins of dinosaurs from the 'Triassic' period, which predates the 'Jurassic' era by 70 million years.

"I was back at work for one day when I was pining to be back in the desert for the sheer simplicity of life," said Gordon, who lives in Lancaster.

"It was a wonderful experience."

Gordon secured a place on the dig through the Earthwatch Institute -- a group which aims to create partnerships between scientists, educators and the general public.

He was given a place on the dig on the condition that he return to England and pass his knowledge on.

Since returning he has written a report on the trip, planned three slide-show talks for local groups, and created a documentary display for an Argentinian museum.

"After breakfast we would set off into the areas and start searching," said Gordon.

"It's the first real experience I've had of archeology. It's impossible to put into words what you feel like when you're handling fossils that are hundreds of millions of years old. You have this incredible sense of awe but can't grasp the timescale involved.

"There was a group of three Rhyncosaurs. They were babies still in the position together where they had died. This suggested they raised their young in caves. That had never been known before and the palaeontologists were as excited as us."