The footprints discovered in 1976 at Vieux-Emosson date back more than 240 million years. It is the best-known site of its kind in Europe.
On 23 August 1976, French geologist Georges Bronner discovered a palaeontological site at Vieux-Emosson, at an altitude of 2,400 metres, which had been exposed by a particularly hot summer. New discoveries in 2008 were studied, enabling the species responsible for these footprints to be identified and new dating hypotheses to be formulated. The age of the terrain predates the era when true dinosaurs developed; the tracks correspond to primitive reptiles belonging to the Archosaur group, which includes the ancestors of dinosaurs and crocodiles.
