120 million-year-old birds tracks near South Pole are the oldest ever discovered in the Southern Hemisphere

Photo of fossilised bird footprint with 3 digits.

Researchers have discovered the earliest bird footprints ever found in Australia, showing that these early birds once lived in southern polar regions on the supercontinent Gondwana.

Palaeontologists unearthed the bird tracks in Wonthaggi Formation in Victoria, Australia, that date back to around 120 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous (145 million to 100.5 million years ago).