Fossil tracks in Italy record a turtle stampede from 80 million years ago

Fossil tracks in Italy record a turtle stampede from 80 million years ago

In the spring of 2019, free climbers scaling the risky cliffs of Monte Cònero on Italy’s Adriatic coast noticed something that stopped them cold. High on pale slabs of limestone that tilt toward the sea, the rock was pocked with strange, curved shapes. They looked like footprints. Hundreds of them. The climbers were not researchers, but they sensed the marks mattered. The slabs, nicknamed “The Sail Slabs,” sit inside Cònero Regional Park, about …