Scientists discover 350-million-year-old footprints: “This is the earliest evidence we’ve ever seen of an animal with claws”
New fossil tracks found in Australia may rewrite everything we thought we knew about animals’ move from sea to land.


It may have started with a seemingly innocuous slab of sandstone pulled from a quiet Australian riverbank, but what it held has stunned scientists.
Deep in the muddy banks of the Broken River near Melbourne, researchers have found something believed to be older than any lizard, older than any known reptile tracks: 350-million-year-old fossilized footprints belonging to a clawed, land-dwelling animal. And not just any animal – one with a foot anatomy so advanced, it’s forcing experts to rethink when and how vertebrates fully adapted to life on land.
This is actually rather a big deal.
Until now, the earliest confirmed reptile-like footprints were from Canada and dated to about 318 million years ago. This find pushes that number back by at least 35,000,000 years.
The tracks, described in Nature by an international team of paleontologists, clearly show long toes ending in sharp, curved claws. One co-author, Sweden-based Per Ahlberg, summed up the evidence: “It’s a walking animal.” Not swimming. Not crawling out of the swamp. Walking – with feet designed for land.
Why do claws matter?
Only animals adapted to full-time life on dry land develop claws, hence why this find is making headlines. Fish and amphibians – those still tied to water for reproduction - don’t have them. Claws suggest reproductive independence from water, something only the evolutionary branch called amniotes (the ancestors of reptiles, birds, and mammals) achieved.
This clawed creature, estimated to be around 2.5 feet (80 cm) long, probably looked a lot like today’s monitor lizards. The sandstone slab reveals three separate sets of tracks, made by three similar animals over what was likely a single day: one walked by, then it rained lightly, and then two more went the other way, leaving their claw marks in the soft ground.
The evolutionary timeline revisited
These ancient footprints found in Victoria don’t just push the origin of land-walking animals back by 35 million years but upend long-held beliefs about how and when vertebrates made the full transition from water to land. Previously thought to be a slow and delayed shift, the move appears to have happened far faster and earlier than expected, around 359 million years ago, near the Devonian-Carboniferous boundary.
“This is the earliest evidence we’ve ever seen of an animal with claws,” said California State University paleontologist Stuart Sumida, via AP.
Fossil claw prints found in Australia were probably made by the earliest known members of the group that includes reptiles, birds and mammals
— nature (@Nature) May 14, 2025
The findings suggest that this group originated at least 35 million years earlier than previously thoughthttps://t.co/Lz8FVvdRzb
More than fossilized bones, these trackways show behavior – an animal walking on dry ground with claws, something only true land dwellers develop. And because bones often don’t survive where tracks do, this find highlights the gaps in the fossil record. The footprints suggest that crown-group amniotes like reptiles, birds, and mammals started evolving much earlier than textbooks suggest.
The track maker was likely a primitive sauropsid, an early ancestor of reptiles, moving across a tropical floodplain on what was then the Gondwana supercontinent. With long toes and distinct curved claws, it left behind not just footprints but a new challenge for evolutionary timelines that now need rewriting.
Get your game on! Whether you’re into NFL touchdowns, NBA buzzer-beaters, world-class soccer goals, or MLB home runs, our app has it all.
Dive into live coverage, expert insights, breaking news, exclusive videos, and more – plus, stay updated on the latest in current affairs and entertainment. Download now for all-access coverage, right at your fingertips – anytime, anywhere.
Complete your personal details to comment
Your opinion will be published with first and last names