In early 2025, 12-year-old Ni Jingchen was out exploring with his parents in Beijing's Mentougou district when he noticed two tiny marks on a slab of exposed rock. Ni already loved fossils and knew enough to realise that the strange impressions were worth a closer look, so he photographed them and shared the find online. He had no idea that his casual discovery would eventually bring professional palaeontologists to the site and reveal something scientists had never documented in Asia before. Associate professor Xing Lida of the China University of Geosciences in Beijing saw the photographs and organised a team to investigate. Their analysis showed that the slab preserved a forefoot and hind-foot track made by a small amphibian roughly 160 million years ago, during the Middle Jurassic. The animal most likely belonged to Salamandroidea, the group that includes modern salamanders, making Ni's find the first scientifically described Jurassic amphibian track record from China and Asia. This remarkable find highlights how youthful curiosity and careful observation can meaningfully advance scientific understanding, proving that groundbreaking discoveries sometimes begin with everyday exploration.
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