Science & Technology

The remains are over 250 million years old.

In 2023, Claudia Steffensen discovered an odd-looking rock while hiking in Italy with her husband. The rock turned out to be a fossil. For centuries, humans have located and studied these fossils to gain a better understanding of what creatures lived on Earth in the distant past.

Upon closer examination, Steffensen realized that the cement-like slab greatly resembled some sort of footprint. Scientists examined the rock and concluded that it was a footprint from a prehistoric reptile that lived on Earth even before dinosaurs. Steffensen’s discovery led to evidence of an entire ecosystem that dated back to the Permian period (299 million to 252 million years ago).

What Causes Fossils to Form?

Fossils come in many forms. Sometimes a whole animal is fossilized, while other times it is just certain parts of the body or even remnants of their existence, like footprints. Additionally, there are several ways a plant or animal can become a fossil.

While the likelihood of an organism becoming a fossil is low, there are a couple of key factors that greatly increase the chances. When an animal is buried by mud or sediment shortly after dying, it prevents decomposition and its exposure to scavengers. Hard bones or other body parts also withstand decomposition and can hang around long enough to be discovered.

Claudia Steffensen’s Discovery

Following Steffensen’s discovery, several experts visited the area in the Italian Alps and realized that there was an entire ecosystem of plants and animals that once existed there. The remains included everything from plants and insects to seeds and even raindrop markings.

Ausonio Ronchi, a scientist at the University of Pavia, credits the area’s closeness to a water source for the pristine preservations. The Permian period is known for great warmth and its mass extinction (90% of earth’s creatures died during this time), so it seems logical for Ronchi to believe that impressions left in the muddy areas surrounding the water were then quickly dried and hardened, allowing them to avoid being washed or blown away.

While there are more investigative plans for the area in the future, some of the fossils are on display at Milan’s Natural History Museum.