[2] The name Ischigualasto is derived from the extinct Cacán language, spoken by an indigenous group referred to as the Diaguita by the Spanish conquistadors and means "place where the moon alights".

That year, Dr. Ángel Cabrera of University of La Plata described the traversodontid Exaeretodon—the first cynodont found in Ischigualasto—after samples sent by a geologist prospecting for coal on behalf of an Argentine mining company.

[4] Academic work and geological prospecting proceeded slowly until 1958, when Dr. Alfred Sherwood Romer, a Harvard University expert in ancient mammals, discovered several rich fossil beds which he described as "extraordinary".

The park is part of the western border of the Central Sierras, and features typical desert vegetation (bushes, cacti and some trees) which covers between 10 and 20% of the area.

[5] The Ischigualasto Formation contains Late Triassic (Carnian) deposits (231.4 -225.9 million years before the present[6]), with some of the oldest known dinosaur remains, which are the world's foremost with regards to quality, number and importance.