Hiker stumbles across 240 million-year-old fossil

A hiker has stumbled on a fossilised dinosaur's footprint up to 240 million years old in the picturesque Montserrat area north of Barcelona.

Archaeologists believe the "exceptionally well-preserved" footprint belonged to an Archosaur, Catalonia's Department of Culture in a statement on Monday.

"Archosaurs were similar to crocodiles, of quadrupedal gait, but with longer limbs (both legs and arms) and more erect posture (i.e. no contact of the body trunk and tail on the ground) than crocodiles," said Eudald Mujal, a paleontologist at Barcelona's Autonomous University (UAB) who is working in the find.

"This footprint is very important because it's exceptionally well-preserved: skin impressions (like reptile scales) are well visible, as well as claw impressions. On a preliminary analysis, this footprint is classified as the ichnogenus Isochirotherium."

It was found by a hiker in Olesa de Montserrat, 40km north of Barcelona, last month but the discovery was not announced until this week.

A plaster cast of the footprint has been taken and is being studied by the department of archaeology at UAB.