‘Turning point’: claw print fossils found in Australia rewrite story of amniotes by 40 million years

The discovery by two local fossil hunters on a river bank in Victoria has ‘potentially far-reaching implications’, scientists say

Fossilised claw prints found in Australia suggest amniotes – the ancestors of reptiles, birds and mammals – evolved about 40m years earlier than thought.

The footprints, in sandstone dated 354m to 358m years old, were probably made by reptiles crossing a surface dimpled by raindrops. Researchers said the trackways represent the oldest evidence of amniotes on the planet.

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