A HIKER stumbled across an unbelievable “lost world” after discovering the fossilised footprints of an ancient reptile older than dinosaurs.
Claudia Steffensen and her husband were trekking in the Italian Alps when she stopped to look at a light grey rock covered in “strange” marks.
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The pair had been going along a trail in the Valtellina Orobie Mountains Park in Lombardy in 2023 when she uncovered the 280-million-year-old “lost world”.
After realising that the bizarre marks on the grey rock were actually animal tracks, Claudia sent photos to a research team who determined the footprints were those of a prehistoric reptile.
The beast who made the tracks would have roamed the planet during the Permian period – the age even before dinosaurs.
Further investigation of the site led palaeontologists to hundreds of other fossilised footprints that had been made by over five species of ancient reptiles, amphibians and insects.
And despite these animals predating dinosaurs, the fossils revealed they would have been gargantuan – perhaps between six and 12 feet long.
Palaeontologist Cristiano Dal Sasso confirmed in a statement: “Dinosaurs did not yet exist, but the authors of the largest footprints must still have been of a considerable size – up to 2-3 metres.”
The researchers also found imprints of plant fossils that included traces of seeds, leaves and stems.
Raindrops and waves on the shores of a prehistoric lake were also found imprinted on the ancient fossils.
Co-researcher and fossils specialist Lorenzo Marchetti explained how the prints were so well-preserved, the “imprints of fingernails and the belly skin of some animals” were even uncovered.
It’s believed they’re in such good condition because of their past proximity to water.
The ancient ecosystem which sat at as high as 10,000 feet and at the bottom of valleys was able to be preserved in fine-grained sandstone.
Co-researcher and palaeontologist Ausonio Ronchi explained in a statement: “The footprints were made when these sandstones and shales were still sand and mud soaked in water at margins of rivers and lakes, which periodically, according to the seasons, dried up.
“The summer sun, drying out those surfaces, hardened them to the point that the return of new water did not erase the footprints but, on the contrary, covered them with new clay, forming a protective layer.”
And what’s more the fossils were uncovered after being hidden under layers of snow for years.
The pre-dinosaur Permian period lasted from 299 million to 252 million years ago.
At the time, global climate warmed at a rapid rate and led to a mass-extinction event that killed a whopping 90 per cent of Earth’s species.
The discovery of the incredible fossils allowed a look into an ancient ecosystem that was impacted by this rapid climate rise millions of years ago.
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