A ground-breaking discovery in Victoria has changes how scientists think life may have developed on Earth. A build and a winemaker stumbled across a fossilised rock near Mansfield, and scientists believe it is the oldest evidence of reptiles in the world.
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00:00When John Eason and Craig Urie went fossicking for fun, they thought maybe they'd find something nice to put in the garden.
00:10Instead, they found what paleontologists are calling the Holy Grail.
00:14It's the find of a lifetime, to be perfectly blunt with you. I will never find anything like that again.
00:18They found the fossilised footprints along the banks of the Broken River in North East Victoria in 2021.
00:25It was just sitting there as a loose slab of rock, and we're just fortunate the light was hitting on the right angle.
00:30After sending the fossil to Flinders University, they discovered how significant the find was.
00:36We discovered this amazing trackway. What we see here are the footprints of the earliest reptiles in the world.
00:43This pushes back the origin of reptiles by 35 to 40 million years, and it places them as firmly originating in Australia.
00:52And that the reptile possibly looked like a goanna.
00:56Previously, the oldest known reptile footprints came from Nova Scotia in Canada, dating back to 315 million years ago.
01:04Flinders University worked alongside professors from Uppsala University in Sweden to date the Mansfield fossil.
01:11So this really is the oldest evidence in the world of reptile-like animals walking around on land.
01:19Fossil fever has ramped up in Mansfield with Mr. Eason working on an exhibition for the public to see local fossils, including the treasured footprints.
01:30Fossils are proverbially boring, but actually they're not. They're really exciting.
01:34While Mansfield is well known for its famous fossils of ancient fish and sharks, this discovery has recalibrated the whole timeline of tetrapod evolution and could well bring more budding paleontologists to the high country.
01:49So let's look at some of those coming.
01:54So are the ones I can be looking for.
01:56What's the most rare?
01:58It's like a new dropship.
01:59It's like a huge gap between me and a new port.
02:00It's like a giant leap in my mind.
02:02My favorite is how to move this, but be great.
02:03I was looking for a large floating.
02:05I think I can see a huge part of this.
02:07I know that you have a huge part of this.
02:09This is probably a huge part of my life.