Lost world with a 280 million year old ecosystem is discovered by hiker in the Italian Alps

A 280 million year old lost world was accidentally discovered by a woman while hiking in the Italian Alps.

Claudia Steffensen and her husband were walking along a trail in Lombardy’s Valtellina Orobie Mountains Park in 2023 when she noticed a light gray rock covered in “strange designs.”

When she looked closer, she realized that the designs were actually animal tracks.

Steffensen sent photos to a research team who determined that the footprints belonged to a prehistoric reptile that roamed the Earth during the Permian period, the era just before the dinosaurs.

Further investigation of the region led paleontologists to hundreds of other fossilized footprints left by at least five species of ancient reptiles, amphibians and insects.

Although these animals predate the dinosaurs, some would have been quite large, perhaps between 6 feet and 11 feet long, researchers said in a statement.

The team also discovered prints of plant fossils – including traces of seeds, leaves and stems – along with prints of raindrops and waves on the shores of a prehistoric lake.

Fellow researcher and trace fossil specialist Lorenzo Marchetti of the Natural History Museum in Berlin said the prints have been preserved in great detail, even down to “the prints of fingernails and the abdominal skin of some animals.”

The fine detail and remarkable preservation of these fossils are due to their former proximity to water, the researchers explained.

Fossils accidentally discovered by a woman hiking in the Italian Alps paint a picture of a bygone ecosystem that may have looked like the Fabio Manucci illustration above

Claudia Steffensen and her husband were walking along a trail in Lombardy’s Valtellina Orobie Mountains Park in 2023 when she saw fossilized animal footprints

The ancient ecosystem, found at elevations as high as 3,000 meters and at the bottom of valleys, was preserved in fine-grained sandstone.

Paleontologists also identified claw marks and patterns from the underbelly of animals.

“The footprints were made when these sandstones and shales were still sand and mud, soaked in water at the edges of rivers and lakes, which dried up periodically, depending on the seasons,” said co-researcher and paleontologist Ausonio Ronchi from the University of Pavia. in the statement.

“The summer sun, which dried out these 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, creating a protective layer,” Ronchi added.

The Permian period lasted from 299 million to 252 million years ago.

During this period, the global climate warmed rapidly, eventually leading to a mass extinction 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, because the fossils were hidden beneath layers of snow that have melted away as Earth’s climate warmed.

The fossils, found at altitudes of up to 3,000 meters and at the bottom of valleys, belong to at least five different species of ancient reptiles, amphibians and insects.

The fine detail and remarkable preservation of these fossils are due to their former proximity to water, the researchers explained

The prints date from 280 million years ago, during 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.

‘The exceptional thing was the height; these relics were found at very high levels and were very well preserved. This is an area prone to landslides, so there were also rock detachments that revealed these fossils.”

Since 1850, human-induced climate change has caused Alpine glaciers to lose between 30 and 40 percent of their surface area and half their volume, and another 10 to 20 percent since 1980, according to CREA Mont-Blanc: Research Center for Alpine Ecosystems.

The discovery of these fossils offers a glimpse into an ancient ecosystem that has been decimated by the extreme rise 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… testify to a remote geological period, but with a global warming trend fully comparable to that of today,” the researchers said.

“The past has a lot to teach us about what we are risking the world into now.”