An international research team from the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin and from Magdeburg and Paris has for the first time investigated resting traces with the body impressions of early mammalian relatives. The 290-million-year-old trace fossils were discovered over 100 years ago in the Tambach sandstone of the famous Bromacker fossil locality in the UNESCO Geopark of Thuringia and have now been re-examined as part of the ongoing BROMACKER research project. These geologically oldest resting traces of early mammal relatives provide unique insights into reptile-like scales and the social behaviour of our early ancestors. The results have been published in the scientific journal Current Biology.