In 1908, near Glen Rose, Texas, in the Paluxy River, a violent flood ripped up slabs of limestone from the river bottom and exposed three toed dinosaur tracks. They were discovered by Ernest Adams, but no one in Glen Rose seemed to realize the true weight of their discovery. During the 30's, tracks were dug up and sold for cash to tourists as money became tight due to the depression. At this time, human-like tracks were dug up and sold also.

Some how, several of these tracks ended up at a trading post in Gallup, New Mexico and were spotted by paleontologist, Roland Bird. Bird immediately recognized that the tracks were carvings (as has been shown and proven that they were indeed counterfeits). He was curious as to just how the residents of Glen Rose would get the idea to counterfeit dinosaur tracks (as the dinosaurs were not so widely known as they are now) so he decided to pay a visit to the Paluxy River for himself. He there documented many therapod and saurapod tracks which led to a great deal of excitement in the science community. During his trip, however, he did not come across any human-like prints with the exception of one very badly misshapen one. For this reason and the fact that it is known that many of the original "human" tracks sold to tourists were fake, many ignorant evolutionists claim that all tracks in the Paluxy River are fake and were carved out by humans to deceive the science community or make money. This is extremely ignorant, however, of current data.

It is currently believed by many evolutionists that the human tracks (which in some areas are all over the place in stride patterns) are actually metatarsal prints caused by the therapods as they walked through the mud. Want it in understandable terms? Dino toes. In bipedal dinosaurs, it is known, or rather, I should say, believed, that when they walked, they held the heels and souls of their feet (remember their feet are much different from ours) above the ground. By suggesting that these prints are actually caused by metatarsals, scientists are claiming that the dinosaurs walked in an unprecedented (in terms of the fossil record) and awkward manner to coincidentally appear like human tracks inside of the dino tracks. Besides the weakness of this theory, I will explain and show why I feel this is wrong in a moment.

In addition to the oddity of this claim, it is also accepted by many evolutionists that the toe prints were the products of invertebrate burrowing, i.e. worm holes placed perfectly to appear as human toes. These burrows were apparently spaced apart correctly to appear as toes AND stepped on by the dino metatarsals perfectly to give off that appearance. Of course, if a metatarsal had stepped directly on a burrow system to give the impression of toes in the middle of a human foot, all doubt would be resolved, but the perfectness of this coincidence is more than this author can handle. Also, to explain prints that would not fit under this explanation, it is believed that many other prints were the result of the dinosaur letting it's tail hit the mud and digging it's snout into the ground. Still others have been blown off as just erosion.

Unfortunately for the Paluxy tracks, an over eager Carl Baugh entered the scene in 1982. Carl Baugh was eager to prove the tracks were real and decided to use any means necessary to do so. In the course of his work he discovered a human tooth, a hammer, a fossilized finger, and a trilobite. These finds were later refuted by workers. I must agree that these objects seem rather curious to have been found in such a site. Not having seen the evidence myself, I must take the word of reliable source that there has been video documentation of Baugh attempting to create toes in one of his prints. This I find very hard to believe, however. We are talking about limestone. It is one of the most obvious rocks to be able to tell if tampering has occurred. It is said that in the video he "gouged" at the rock to expose toe prints. If this was done with any sort of tool, such marks would clearly be visible (if the toes were falsified and not actually exposed from beneath) by advanced discoloration and jagged edges. These were not observed. From just this, one might not know for sure what to believe. Wait 'till you get to the end of this page to make any conclusions.

You can't tell anything from this picture, but you can get a good sense of what the Paluxy is like and the environment this research is being performed in.

I don't think the thousand pound slab of rock and the tractor are props. This picture proves that the tracks deposited are not faked. There are seven tracks in this picture. While crude in method, I see no reason why this would disturb or alter the validity of the tracks.


Excavation can remain difficult at times as there remains a river in the way. There are no human tracks in this picture.


The "metatarsal" print is deeper than the rest of the print! A dinosaur that did not actively use the metatarsal in everyday activities, would not be able to support much weight on such an appendage because muscles in that region would be severely underdeveloped. In this picture the therapod would have to be supporting the majority and, in fact, almost all of it's weight on the metatarsal if this were, in fact, a metatarsal print.


An ugly foot with a beautiful fit.


Looks pretty human to me. This is not in a track, so can not be explained by metatarsal theories. Was this caused by a snout?


Unfortunately, like all things, these scientific finds are far from immune from vandalism. What ticks me off is the man who seems to have done it. The man who stands to be the culprit is Glen Kuban, a vocal proponent and originator of the metatarsal theory. Here is an article that shows pretty well just what the evidence is that points to him:

Prize Track destroyed once for all time!
On August 12, 1989 Dr. Don Patton spoke at a creation conference in Dayton, Tennessee. He presented evidence that all the data relating to the Taylor Trail was best explained by a combination of human and dinosaur tracks. He featured -3B. Glen Kuban, known for his opposition to Dr. Patton's explanation, was conspicuously disturbed by this presentation. He immediately flew to Dallas and was in the Paluxy River the next day. It was reliably reported that he and Scott Faust in the river that afternoon with an "iron bar." Three days before they were in the river this beautiful fossil footprint looked like the picture on the left. Three days after they were in the river, it was observed looking like the picture on the right.

You can see from the picture the jagged edges and the discoloration caused by the chiseling and breaking of the limestone. Glen Kuban is an author for Talk.Origins Archive.


An experiment by junior high schoolers attempted to show how normal feet could produce differing shapes. This picture shows the results of two students running through wet concrete. One pair of tracks is directed towards the camera and the other away. Do these look at all familiar to you?