Secret Hidden In Alps: Woman Accidentally Discovered 280 Million-Year-Old Lost World

While hiking with her husband, a woman unintentionally stumbled upon the lost world that was 280 million years old.

Reports state that Claudia Steffensen, who was travelling through the Italian Alps with her husband, spotted a rock with odd patterns while hiking the trails in Lombardy, Italy. But upon further inspection, Steffenson discovered that the rock was marred with "strange circular designs with wavy lines," which she believed to be footprints.

She took photos and sent them to her friend Elio Della Ferrera, a nature photographer, who forwarded them to Milan's Natural History Museum.

Later, upon close review, the team of researchers found hundreds of fossil traces from the sites. In fact, the team has also found that the footprints belong to a prehistoric reptile from the Permian period, which is the time right before the dinosaurs inhabited the earth.

The researchers said: “The past has a lot to teach us about what we risk getting the world into now.”