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100 Reasons to Choose Biblical Creation Over Evolution
90. The Paluxy "Man Tracks"
In 1908, the Paluxy River near Glen Rose Texas flooded, and massive volumes of rapidly flowing water caused sections of the river's bed to be torn up and carried downstream. In the layers beneath, beautifully preserved dinosaur footprints were exposed. Subsequent excavations over the years have revealed hundreds of footprints from several kinds of dinosaurs. Also present within and around these footprints were found the unmistakable footprints of man.
The "man tracks" have sparked enormous controversy that continues to this day. The most popular evolutionary explanation for them is that for some unknown reason, three-toed dinosaurs were walking flat-footed, producing an elongated print. It is believed that the toes of these prints became in-filled with mud, producing a human-like shape.
While it's true that subsequent erosion of some of the "man tracks" has revealed three dinosaur toes above, this does not prove that the human prints are actually in-filled dinosaur tracks. It may be evidence that humans stepped into dinosaur tracks as they walked through the mud. The in-filled track theory can't explain why some of the human prints are so off-centre. I have, for instance, a casting of a three-toed dinosaur print from the riverbed taken by palaeontologist Joe Taylor, which has a clearly human footprint inside it. The human print is pointing in a direction almost perpendicular to the direction the dinosaur was travelling. Neither can the in-filled track theory adequately explain why many of the human prints have discernable toes in them. To suggest, as some have, that the toe marks were made by burrowing creatures such as worms, or that they were made by a dinosaur tail or snout, would require that this highly unlikely convergence of phenomenon happen multiple times over.
The Taylor Trail back in 1999. All must agree that there is at least a superficial resemblance to a trail of human prints. The circled print apparent caused some concern because as it eroded, discernible claw marks could be seen just above the human-like track impression. Many believed that the whole trail therefore was dinosaurian.
A better explanation. If you look closely at the print, you can see clear toe impressions. I don't understand how a dinosaur could have made such features. A better explanation for what we are seeing here would be that a human being has stepped into a freshly made dinosaur print. This is not at all unusual. Up here in Canada where we are under snow for 5 months of the year, I can tell you that people will step where others have gone before them.
According to Geologist Don Patton, an entire trail of human prints was measured and photographed, and pictures of the individual prints were given to university students to analyze. In a double blind test, students unanimously agreed that what they were looking at were human prints, and they were able to correctly identify left from right 100% of the timeA. Both Carl BaughB and John Allen WatsonC affirmed that a police forensic expert from the Dallas Police Dept. also positively identified at least one of the prints as human. The Paluxy river tracks remain good evidence that humans and dinosaurs walked togetherD, completely contrary to the evolution story.
The trail underwater in 1988
Stan Taylor began excavating the trail back in 1969.
Here Taylor points to human-like track impressions.
90. The Paluxy "Man Tracks" - Notes and References
A. This is the Taylor trail, which consists of 14 human-like prints in sequence. The results of this test are featured on Dr. Patton's website www.bible .ca, and on his DVD, "Record of the Rocks".
B. Personal Communication, September 2004
C. Personal Communication, May 2004
D. The arguments of men like Glen Kuban and his strange, infilled dinosaur track theories have sufficed to cause many creationists to withdraw support for the Paluxy site. His arguments have been refuted by Henry Johnson (www.omniology.com), Don Patton (www.bible.ca), and Joe Taylor ("Fossil Facts & Fantasies", pp. 70-74).
Biologist Gary Parker has presented alongside Ken Ham, a wonderful defender of biblical creation but staunch denier of the Paluxy "man-track" claims. Parker himself has gone on record as believing the tracks to be genuine:
"Even more dramatic are the finds of fossil footprints in the Paluxy River bed near Glen Rose, Texas. These prints are much more obviously human than Mary Leakey's. The stride is normal for human beings, and the prints come in child size, adult size, and a few are so large that only a few people living today can fill them. The left-right stride is apparent and continues even under limestone ledges that had to be bulldozed away. Obviously, neither erosion nor carving could have formed these prints…Actually, I was really quite sceptical about these finds when I first heard about them. But on one of our fossil hunting trips, I took the family through Glen Rose. Even though park officials have removed almost all the red paint that used to circle the human-like tracks, we found some (one the size of my wife's foot) on one of the park ledges. Most of the prints are under water and outside the park, but our guide one summer was able to find one print by sighting in from a landmark along the bank. To find the other prints in that series, all I had to do was put my foot in the first print (it was easy to tell, it was a left and not a right), then reach back with my right foot one stride's length, then back with my left foot, and so on. The last print ended in a dinosaur track lying across the path. One track didn't seem very print-like to me, but then my foot slipped sideways in the sand. That was exactly the way that one track felt." Gary Parker, "Creation The Facts of Life", Creation Life Publishers, 1980, pp. 118-119
In October 2005 I spoke with archeaologist Randal Price at the Winnipeg Prophecy Conference. He informed me that he was personally involved in excavations along the Paluxy in the 1970's. In his opinion the tracks he helped excavate were unmistakably human.
Dinosaur and Human Prints Near Tuba City, Arizona?
In May of 2007 my family a took our annual vacation / apologetic research trip. On of our stops was Tuba City AZ, where dinosaur footprints had been preserved en masse.
The track site is located five miles west of Tuba City. The whole territory is native owned and these folks are more than happy to take visitors on a tour of the property. Dino tracks (and remains of the dinosaurs themselves) are everywhere.
I asked our guide if he ever saw anything strange on his property. He said that amongst the dinosaur prints were a couple of human tracks as well. Here's one of them.
Here's another shot of what our guide believes is a human track. There's nothing non-human about it, and if it were part of a sequence the identification as human would be incontestable. Unfortunately the ground is pretty busted up in that area and a clear sequence of human tracks was undiscernible. The evidence at Tuba city, in my opinion, remains tantalising though inconclusive.