Overview
- The revision adds roughly four million years to previous estimates, shifting key early Permian timelines at Bromacker.
- The ash layer, discovered during 2024 excavations, contained zircon crystals suitable for high‑precision U–Pb analysis.
- Zircons were extracted at Friedrich‑Schiller‑Universität Jena and dated in clean‑room facilities at TU Bergakademie Freiberg.
- Researchers say the older age indicates that modern‑like food webs and early tetrapod innovations emerged sooner than thought.
- The result, published in Gondwana Research, improves correlations with contemporaneous Pangaea sites and stems from a project funded by Germany’s federal government and Thuringia.