Eons ago, somewhere on Earth, a prehistoric lizard-like creature crept across a wet sandy dune next to a shallow continental sea.

About 315 million years ago — long before dinosaurs roamed the Earth — an early reptile scuttled along in a strangely sideways jaunt, leaving its tiny footprints embedded in the landscape, new research finds.

Footprints of a “lizard like-creature” 310 million years old have been unearthed in the Grand Canyon, making them potentially the oldest reptile footprints ever found.

Geologists have uncovered a set of 28 footprints along a hiking trail in Grand Canyon National Park. The footprints were left by a reptile-like creature and are cemented in a 310 million-year-old rock, making them oldest tracks ever to be found in the site.

310-million-year old footprints of a "lizard like-creature" have been unearthed in the Grand Canyon, making them potentially the oldest ever reptile footprints ever found.

What could be the oldest footprints ever, of a lizard like-creature that roamed Earth 310 million years ago have been discovered in the Grand Canyon. Made by one of the first reptiles that ever lived the prints make it look as if the creature was line dancing.

About 310 million years ago in what's now Arizona, a primitive creature trundled along on all fours through towering sand dunes that spilled into the sea. Normally, this creature's tracks would have vanished like other footfalls on a beach. But in a rare case, the tracks hardened into sandstone—preserving this flash of ancient behavior.

Some 310 million years ago, a reptile-like creature with an unusual gait roamed the sandy expanses of the Grand Canyon, leaving a trail of 28 footprints that can still be seen today. As Michael Greshko reports for National Geographic, these unusually well-preserved markers represent the national park’s oldest footfalls—and, if additional analysis links the early reptile to one that left a similar set of prints in Scotland roughly 299 million years ago, the tracks may even earn the distinction of being the oldest of their kind by more than 10 million years.