Tourist finds unique 280 million-year-old reptile tracks in the Alps

A casual walk in the mountains turned into a remarkable paleontological discovery: fossilized footprints of prehistoric reptiles dating back 280 million years have been discovered in the northern Italian Alps. This discovery sheds light on life on Earth long before the appearance of dinosaurs.

The unexpected discovery was made by local resident Claudia Steffensen while hiking with her husband in the Valtellina-Orobi mountain range. "My attention was drawn to an unusual stone that resembled a cement slab," Claudia recalls. "Looking at its surface, I noticed strange circular patterns with wavy lines that turned out to be ancient paw prints." Interesting Engineering writes about it.

The intuition did not disappoint the curious tourist. The photos of the find, sent through a naturalist friend, Elio Della Ferrera, to paleontologist Cristiano Dal Sasso of the Milan Museum of Natural History, aroused great interest in the scientific community.

Further exploration of the area at an altitude of 1700 meters above sea level exceeded the scientists' wildest expectations. The expeditions discovered hundreds of fossilized traces of various creatures of the Permian period: from small insects to huge reptiles 2-3 meters long. Of particular interest are the "tracks" - sequences of prints left by at least five different species of animals.

In addition to traces of ancient fauna, the researchers found unique evidence of the environment of the time: fossilized fragments of plants, seeds, and even raindrop prints. It is ironic that this discovery was made possible by global warming: it was the melting of the Alpine glaciers that exposed these priceless paleontological artifacts.

This discovery not only enriches our understanding of life on the planet during the Permian period, but also demonstrates how a chance observation can lead to an important scientific discovery.

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