Fossil tracks: Wrong number of fingers leads down wrong track

Have you ever wondered why our hands have five fingers while amphibians usually only have four? Until now it was assumed that this was already the case with the early ancestors of today's frogs and salamanders, the Temnospondyli. However, a new find of the crocodile-like Temnospondyl Metoposaurus krasiejowensis (about 225 million years old) in Poland shows five metacarpal bones and thus five fingers. Thus, until now, fossil animal tracks may have been wrongly assigned.

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