A new study reveals the discovery of potentially the oldest amniote footprints, dating back 350-359 million years. Found in Australia, these tracks challenge prior assumptions about the timeline of terrestrial evolution. Amniotes, which evolved to lay eggs on land, emerged from water-dwelling ancestors about 320 million years ago. If this dating is confirmed, it may prompt scientists to rethink the evolution of early tetrapods and their transition to a completely land-based existence. The study's co-authors emphasize the implications for understanding the ancient origins of species leading to reptiles, birds, and mammals.
"It's the earliest fossil that we have that appears to be an amniote," said Per Ahlberg, a paleontologist at Sweden's Uppsala University and co-author of the study.
"This is tantalizing evidence that the lineages that led to both reptiles like dinosaurs and birds and so on, and the lineages that led to us, must be more ancient than we expected - and might have originated in a part of the world that we didn't expect," said Stuart.
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