A woman accidentally discovered a 280-million-year-old lost world while hiking in the Italian Alps.
Claudia Steffensen and her husband were walking along a trail in the Valtellina Orobie Mountains Park in Lombardy in 2023 when she saw a light gray rock covered in “strange designs.”
When he looked closer, he realized that the designs were actually animal footprints.
Steffensen sent photographs to a research team who determined that the footprints belonged to a prehistoric reptile that roamed the Earth during the Permian period, the era immediately before the dinosaurs.
Further investigation of the region led paleontologists to find hundreds of other fossilized footprints left by at least five species of ancient reptiles, amphibians and insects.
Although these animals predated the dinosaurs, some must have been of considerable size, perhaps between six and 12 feet long, the researchers said in a statement.
The team also discovered traces of plant fossils, including traces of seeds, leaves and stems, along with traces of raindrops and waves on the shores of a prehistoric lake.
Co-researcher and trace fossil specialist Lorenzo Marchetti of the Natural History Museum in Berlin said the footprints were preserved in “impressive” detail, including “fingernail prints and belly skin of some animals.”
The researchers explained that the fine detail and remarkable preservation of these fossils is due to their past proximity to water.
Fossils accidentally discovered by a woman hiking in the Italian Alps paint a picture of a bygone ecosystem that may have resembled Fabio Manucci’s illustration above.
Claudia Steffensen and her husband were walking along a trail in the Valtellina Orobie Mountains Park in Lombardy in 2023 when she saw fossilized animal tracks.
The ancient ecosystem, found at altitudes up to 10,000 feet and at valley floors, was preserved in fine-grained sandstone.
Paleontologists also identified claw marks and patterns on the animals’ bellies.
“The traces were left when these sandstones and shales were still water-soaked sand and mud on the banks of rivers and lakes, which periodically, depending on the seasons, dried out,” explained co-researcher and paleontologist Ausonio Ronchi of the University of Pavia. in it statement.
“The summer sun, by drying these surfaces, hardened them to the point that the return of the new water did not erase the traces but, on the contrary, covered them with new clay, forming a protective layer,” Ronchi added.
The Permian period lasted from 299 million to 252 million years ago.
During this time, the global climate warmed rapidly, eventually leading to a mass extinction event that marked the end of this period and killed 90 percent of Earth’s species.
Ironically, current global warming made the discovery of this ancient alpine ecosystem possible, as the fossils were hidden under layers of snow that melted as Earth’s climate warmed.
The fossils, found at altitudes up to 10,000 feet and at valley floors, belong to at least five different species of ancient reptiles, amphibians and insects.
The fine details and remarkable preservation of these fossils are due to their past proximity to water, the researchers explained.
The footprints date back 280 million years, to the Permian Period, which ended in a mass extinction that killed 90 percent of Earth’s species due to global warming.
“The discovery in the Ambria Valley is also a consequence of climate change,” said Doriano Codega, president of the Valtellina Orobie natural park. the guardian.
‘What was exceptional was the altitude: these relics were found at very high levels and were very well preserved. It is an area subject to landslides, so rock falls also occurred that brought these fossils to light.’
Since 1850, human-caused climate change has caused Alpine glaciers to lose 30 to 40 percent of their surface area and half their volume, with a further 10 to 20 percent loss since 1980, according to CREA Mont-Blanc: Alpine Ecosystems Research Center.
The discovery of these fossils offers a window into an ancient ecosystem decimated by extreme increases in global temperatures. In this way, it also serves as a reminder of what is at stake as anthropogenic warming approaches catastrophic levels.
“These fossils… bear witness to a distant geological period, but with a global warming trend completely similar to the current one,” the researchers stated.
“The past has a lot to teach us about the risk the world faces now.”