AI6YR BenThe Guardian: Hiker discovers first trace of entire prehistoric ecosystem in Italian Alps
Melting snow and ice has revealed footprints of reptiles and amphibians, dating back 280 million years
anlomedad@ai6yr
Awesome!
The blessings of #climatechange : first, the couple fled the summer heat and went hiking in the Lombardy mountains. To discover freshly unearthed, 280mio year old amphibian tracks.
Where was that area 280mio years ago? And what was the Northern latitude ice extent, global mean temperature and CO2 concentration?
I stitched a chart from #Judd et al 2024 on top of tectonic animations by Meredith 2021 on the left, and a youtube video by Chris Scotese on the right.
Sondrio, Lombardy, Italy can't be seen ^^. But it's supposed to be near the centre of the earths where the Meredith animation shows Greenland and Scandinavia next to it. In the gap between them is England. And just below England to the south east is Lombardy. Or check it out here https://dinosaurpictures.org/ancient-earth/#280 , also by Scotese.
Huge differences in how the two earth models differ in land mass distribution.
Maybe, the new find can help put Lombardy at 280Ma on land in both models, which at the moment see it drowned under water.