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

Fossilised claw prints found in Australia reveal that amniotes—ancient reptiles, birds, and mammals—evolved as early as 40 million years ago, far earlier than previously believed. The trackways, preserved in a 354-358 million-year-old sandstone layer near Melbourne, represent the oldest known evidence of these ancestors on Earth. Detailed analysis confirmed their significance, challenging previous timelines for evolution and suggesting they may have first appeared in Gondwana rather than the Northern Hemisphere. This discovery also prompts researchers to seek more direct amniote fossils to further unravel their evolutionary story.