Dark silver rock pulled from Oklahoma limestone quote is the world’s oldest fossiled cast of skin ever found. Fossils are nearly 290 million years old, 21 million years older than the only other reporters of fossilized skin from the Paleozoic Era. “The oldest known piece of mummified skin,” Paneotalighist Ethan Mooney of the University of Toronto Mississauga.  “It fits perfectly into Broater’s story of how the first left the water and went onto land.” Fossil collectors Bill and Judy May found a cast, along with exquisitely preserved skin impressions.

A special concurring of events of cave conditions contributed to the fossil’s amazing preservation. Corpses were buried in fine sediments, which left out the oxygen and slowed the decay, and also were exposed to groundwater rich in an element that helped further the preservation of the tissues. Since the site was an ancient oil seep. Elements like Petrolum and tar covered the remains, closing them up from decaying conditions while also coding the tissues in black. 

The skin samples all possess scales but the scale sizes vary. Mooney’s team suggests that specimens probably come from different places on the annotated body, and possibly different animals as well. Cast cross sections revealed a thickened outer layer of skin or epidermis. The growth of the robust epidermis would have protected the early amniotes from the elements while keeping water inside it. That change in surficial surfaces eventually led to bird feathers and hair follicles. Mooney says “ Tough and bumpy annotate skin, the first stage.”