Fossil discovery pushes back reptile evolution by 40 million years
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
Original Coverage: Animal evolution theory turned upside down by new fossil discovery
Fossilized tracks unearthed in Australia provide compelling evidence that reptile-like animals existed far earlier than previously thought. This finding challenges long-held assumptions about the evolution of tetrapods, the group that includes amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. The tracks indicate that amniotes were present in the Carboniferous period, much earlier than established records in the Northern Hemisphere. With its clawed feet, this primitive sauropsid walked across what was once part of the ancient southern supercontinent, Gondwana. The implications of this discovery for the early evolution of Tetrapods are profound, said Professor John Long, from Flinders University. The discovery suggests that tetrapod evolution proceeded faster and earlier than originally thought. In addition to the Australian tracks, similar trackways have been identified in Silesia, Poland. These tracks, dated to the mid-Serpukhovian to early Bashkirian, are slightly younger than the Australian finds but also display claw impressions. The Polish tracks extend the known range of Notalacerta into the early carboniferous. This suggests that ammiotes. were present across both GONDwana and Euramerica much earlierthan
Claw-marks on Primordial Soil: Reptiles Arose Much Earlier Than Thought
Claw-marks found on sand 40 million years before its kind were thought to exist. Discovery shows that the emergence of fully terrestrial animals from tetrapods was faster and earlier than had been thought. Amniotes were the ancestors of all terrestrial vertebrates from snakes to whales to us, and some semi-aquatic animals like crocodiles. They were the only member of the tetrapod to evolve the ability to reproduce on land. The discovery pushes their evolution back by 35-40 million years, the team says, and it is the oldest evidence in the world of reptile-like animals walking around on land – and it pushes the age of land animals back 35 million years to 360 million years. The fossil was found in the Snowy Plains Formation in Taungurung Country, Victoria in the late Devonian-early Carboniferous, and this was no transitional amphibious fishapod. It was a full-blown amniote with legs and feet and toes and chiefly, claws, the researchers say. They say the discovery shows that reptiles arose tens of millions of years earlier than we realized. The clue is the claws, which are a derived character of crown amniote and are almost invariably present
Footprints found in Australia are the oldest evidence of clawed animals ever found
Australian scientists have identified the oldest fossilized footprints of a reptile-like animal on a sandstone slab found near Melbourne. The tracks date back approximately 350 million years to the Carboniferous period. Scientists estimate the animal that made the footprints was about 80 centimeters long and may have looked like a modern monitor lizard. The discovery suggests that after the first animals evolved onto land about 400 million years ago, they developed the ability to live entirely on land much faster than previously hypothesized. The age of these prints suggests that amniotes evolved millions of years earlier than previously expected, rewriting the timing on when the clade that includes mammals first evolved. “I’m stunned. A single track-bearing slab, which one person can lift, calls into question everything we thought we knew about when modern tetrapods evolved,” said Professor Per Ahlberg, a paleontologist from Flinders University in Australia. “We thought the transition from fin to limb took much longer than the evidence now suggests,” remarked Stuart Sumida, a Paleontologist at Uppsala University in Sweden. “This is the earliest evidence we’ve ever seen of an animal with claws,” said co-author Per AhLberg, another paleontology professor.
Animal evolution theory turned upside down by new fossil discovery
Fossilized tracks unearthed in Australia provide compelling evidence that reptile-like animals existed far earlier than previously thought. This finding challenges long-held assumptions about the evolution of tetrapods, the group that includes amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. A team led by John Long, a professor at Flinders University, discovered fossilized tracks of an amniote with clawed feet. The tracks, found in the Mansfield district of northern Victoria, indicate that amniotes were present in the Carboniferous period, much earlier than established records in the Northern Hemisphere. The implications of this discovery for the early evolution of Tetrapods are profound, said Professor Long. The track-bearing slab, discovered in Taungurung Country, belonged to the Snowy Plains Formation. The animal that left these tracks likely resembled a small, stumpy Goanna-like creature. This primitive sauropsid walked across what was once part of the ancient southern supercontinent, Gondwana. The discovery suggests that tetrapod evolution proceeded faster and earlier than previous thought. Similar trackways have been identified in Silesia, Poland. These tracks, dated to the mid-Serpukhovian to
Earliest-known ‘reptile’ footprints discovered by amateur fossil hunters in Victoria
Footprints found on a slab of rock in the foothills of the Victorian Alps. The fossil is the earliest-known amniote, an early relative of reptiles, birds, and mammals. The trackway is 40 million years older than previous fossils. It means reptile-like creatures were walking on land in the earliest Carboniferous Period, a time when vast swamp forests dominated Earth. Claws in the trackway were the “dead giveaway” that the footprints did not belong to an amphibian, according to Flinders University palaeontologist John Long. The find is of immense importance to our understanding of when and where the main vertebrate [group] evolved, Professor Long said. More fossils from the same area and time frame might shed more light on the creature and whether it was walking or swimming through the mud. The area is more known as the Snowy Plain Formation, but Professor Long says there is potential to find more trackways. The Broken River or Berrepit River is a common location to find fossils in the Mansfield basin. The discovery is particularly special for Professor Long, who has a long-time connection to the location where the fossils were found because it comes from an area that he honours
Fossil tracks revise march of early life on Earth
Flinders University Professor John Long and colleagues have identified fossilised tracks of an amniote with clawed feet from the Carboniferous period, about 350 million years ago. The discovery indicates that such animals originated in the ancient southern supercontinent of Gondwana, of which Australia was a central part. The fossil tracks, discovered in the Mansfield district of northern Victoria in Australia, were made by an animal that Professor Long predicts would have looked like a small, stumpy, goanna-like creature. “The implications of this discovery for the early evolution of tetrapods are profound,” says Professor Long, Strategic Professor in Palaeontology at Flinders. ‘This is the oldest evidence in the world of reptile-like animals walking around on land – and it pushes their evolution back by 35-to-40 million years older than the previous records in the Northern Hemisphere,’ he says. The study was published today in the journal Nature and is based on research by Dr Alice Clement, Dr Aaron Camens and Dr Per Erik Ahlberg of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, all of whom worked with Professor Long on the project. For confidential support call the Samaritans on 08457
356-Million-Year-Old Fossil Trackway With Claw Marks Is Probably Oldest Evidence Of Reptiles
tracks found in rocks in southeast Australia date to 355 million years ago. They are believed to be from an amniote, most likely a reptile. If so, they beat the previous oldest evidence for amniotes by more than 30 million years. The discovery will rewrite the timing on when the clade that includes mammals first evolved. The tracks could be narrowed down to a 9-million-year-old animal. They were found in an extensive layer of Devonian bedrock deposited around the same time. It lies above parts of southeastern Australia that is covered by volcanic deposits that can be dated with certainty to 350 million years old. The track size indicates an animal perhaps 80 centimeters (32 inches) long, although such estimates are vague without knowing more about the body. It also suggests amniots’ origins may have been in Gondwanaland, of which Australia was then part. It provides confirmation for their emergence and extends their range beyond their current range. It would have set the record for amniotes without this find, but it would have extended their range well beyond the Gondwana region of the Northern Hemisphere. It is not known if the tracks were made by an amphibian, as no modern amphib
A new discovery is rewriting the history of evolution by millions of years
Scientists in Australia have unearthed the oldest known fossil footprints of a reptile-like creature. The prints, dating back approximately 350 million years, suggest animals transitioned from aquatic to fully terrestrial life far more rapidly than previously believed. This discovery surpasses the prior record held by footprints found in Canada, dated to 318 million years ago. The emergence of the first land-dwelling animals is estimated to have occurred around 400 million years years ago in what’s now Australia. The findings were published Wednesday in Nature and challenge existing theories about the evolutionary journey from fin to limb. ‘This is the earliest evidence we’ve ever seen of an animal with claws,’ said study co-author and paleontologist Per Ahlberg at Uppsala University in Sweden. ‘Trackways are beautiful because they tell you how something lived, not just what something looked like,’ said co-authored John Long, a paleontologists at Flinders University in Australia. ‘It’s a walking animal,’ said Ahlburg. ‘We had thought the transition from fins to limbs took much longer,’ said California State University’s Stuart Sumida, who was not involved in the study. The ancient footprints from Australia were found on a slab
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Sources
- Original: Animal evolution theory turned upside down by new fossil discovery
- Claw-marks on Primordial Soil: Reptiles Arose Much Earlier Than Thought
- Footprints found in Australia are the oldest evidence of clawed animals ever found
- Animal evolution theory turned upside down by new fossil discovery
- Earliest-known ‘reptile’ footprints discovered by amateur fossil hunters in Victoria
- Fossil tracks revise march of early life on Earth
- 356-Million-Year-Old Fossil Trackway With Claw Marks Is Probably Oldest Evidence Of Reptiles
- A new discovery is rewriting the history of evolution by millions of years
Source: https://www.earth.com/news/fossil-discovery-pushes-back-reptile-evolution-by-40-million-years/