Unique 280 million-year-old fossils found in Italy

In the north of Italy, near the border with Switzerland, a real ecosystem has recently been discovered, fossilized on sandstone slabs.

Written by UNN with reference to Repubblica.

Traces of amphibians and reptiles, as well as plants, seeds, skin prints, and even raindrops - all creating an ancient ecosystem - were accidentally discovered in the Orobiero Valtellinesi Park in the province of Sondrio by tourist Claudia Steffensen from Lovero. The discovery was later documented by naturalist photographer Elio Della Ferrera. It was studied by paleontologists and geologists from museums in Milan and Berlin.

According to scientists, the find preserves traces of life 280 million years ago.

As indicated, further research was carried out from an altitude of 3,000 meters during an impressive helicopter-supported operation. The resulting artifacts were first shown at the Natural History Museum in Milan.

Experts recognized the footprints of tetrapods (reptiles and amphibians) and invertebrates (insects, arthropods). These are “footprints” that took place in Perm, the last period of the Paleozoic era.

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In particular, there are fossilized traces of at least five different species of animals on the site, which will allow for accurate paleoecological reconstructions in the future.

The traces were left when these sandstones and shales were still sand and mud soaked in water on the banks of rivers and lakes, which periodically, depending on the season, dried up... The summer sun, drying these surfaces, hardened them to such an extent that the return of new water did not erase the traces, but, on the contrary, covered them with new clay, forming a protective layer