Overview
- Researchers dated the impressions to roughly 298–299 million years using volcanic ash layers in quarries near Tabarz and Floh-Seligenthal, Germany.
- The ichnotaxon, named Cabarzichnus pulchrus, records a lizard-sized body outline with head, trunk, tail and limb positions.
- The traces provide the oldest definitive evidence of epidermal scales in early reptiles, with diamond-shaped trunk scales, rectangular limb rows, and narrow overlapping tail scales.
- A slit-like mark at the tail base represents the earliest known cloacal opening in amniotes and is oriented transversely, resembling turtles, lizards and snakes rather than crocodiles.
- The findings, led by Lorenzo Marchetti of the Museum für Naturkunde and published in Current Biology (doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2026.01.036), were linked to a bolosaurian-grade reptile based on associated footprints.