Hiker Discovers 280-Million-Year-Old Ecosystem Beneath Melting Alpine Snow

An accidental discovery reveals a prehistoric world older than Dinosaurs.

Jesse

• Published in News
• November 22, 2024

Sometimes, nature surprises us in the most unexpected ways. Beneath the melting snow of the Italian Alps, an incredible secret has emerged—an ancient ecosystem that predates the dinosaurs by millions of years.

Interestingly, the discovery was accidental. A hiker exploring the Lombardy region noticed strange impressions on the exposed rock. These were no ordinary markings; they were the footprints of reptiles and amphibians that lived 280 million years ago, during the Permian period.

According to Cristiano Dal Sasso, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in Milan, “Dinosaurs had not yet emerged at this time, but the animals responsible for the largest footprints here would still have been impressive, reaching up to 2-3 meters in length.”

The fossils offer a glimpse into a time when Earth looked vastly different. There were no flowers, no birds, no towering dinosaurs—just a rugged, untamed world where early land animals thrived.

This remarkable find owes its discovery to the melting snow and ice. But that silver lining comes with a darker truth. The same climate change that revealed these ancient footprints is reshaping the Alps and ecosystems around the globe.

Now on display in Milan, the fossils are drawing curiosity from all over the world. Scroll down for more details...

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This fascinating discovery began with an ordinary summer hike along a trail in the Valtellina Orobie mountain range when Claudia Steffensen stepped into an extraordinary piece of history. During the adventure, she paused on a gray stone that seemed oddly out of place.

“My husband was in front of me, looking straight ahead, while I was looking toward my feet. I put my foot on a rock, which struck me as odd as it seemed more like a slab of cement. I then noticed these strange circular designs with wavy lines. I took a closer look and realized they were footprints,” Steffensen recounted to The Guardian.

Steffensen photographed the strange patterns and shared them with her friend, Elio Della Ferrera, a nature photographer. Fascinated, Della Ferrera reached out to paleontologist Cristiano Dal Sasso at Milan’s Natural History Museum, setting off a scientific investigation.

Dal Sasso brought in two experts to analyze the find: Ausonio Ronchi, a stratigraphy professor from the University of Pavia, and Lorenzo Marchetti, a fossil specialist at Berlin’s Natural History Museum. Their reactions confirmed the discovery’s significance.

Scientists carefully transport a massive boulder from the Italian Alps. Its surface is etched with fossilized footprints

Marchetti, speaking to NBC News, expressed his amazement at the find. While familiar with other Permian sites in the region, none, he said, were as “rich” as this one. Ronchi shared the sentiment, marveling at the abundance and preservation of the fossils. “It is the first time we have seen such an amazing variety of vertebrate footprints, invertebrate tracks, imprints of flora, and other fossils,” he said.

According to Ronchi, these footprints were preserved in a stroke of natural luck. “The summer sun dried those surfaces so thoroughly that when water returned, the footprints weren’t washed away; rather, they were covered by new layers of clay that formed a protective coating.”

This computer-generated offers a glimpse of what these ancient creatures might have looked like millions of years ago.

After the discovery, Della Ferrera and her research team stepped up their mission. They ventured nearly 10,000 feet above sea level to map and photograph hundreds of fossilized traces scattered across the mountain range.

Last month, the first of these ancient relics were airlifted out by helicopter. This marked a dramatic step in preserving this prehistoric treasure trove.

The fossils, nestled in a high mountain valley blanketed by snow for most of the year, owe their discovery to the relentless march of climate change. Rising temperatures have accelerated the melting of snow and ice, exposing debris fields where these ancient footprints lay hidden.

“Last year’s ice is almost gone due to the rising temperatures, which uncovers the debris area where we found the fossils,” explained researcher Ronchi. The warming trend has also triggered cracking and erosion along the mountain’s steep walls, causing blocks of rock to tumble down. “We expect to find many more tracks and fossils in the coming years,” he added.

Jesse