What are the Paluxy tracks?
The bed of the Paluxy River, which flows through the town of Glen Rose in Texas, preserves many fossil footprints of dinosaurs from the Cretaceous period, about 110 million years ago. Today the area is protected as Dinosaur Valley State Park, where visitors can see the dinosaur tracks up close.
Some people claimed that giant human-like footprints were found here together with the dinosaur tracks, arguing that “dinosaurs and humans lived at the same time.”
“Human footprints” for sale
In the 1930s, people in the area, struggling through the Depression, sold rocks with dinosaur footprints to tourists and others. It is known that some carved “human footprint” fossils into stone because they sold for more.
Later, creationists, who take the Bible’s account of creation literally, presented the Paluxy “man tracks” as evidence that dinosaurs and humans coexisted and spread the claim through films and books.
What research revealed
In the 1980s, researchers studied the site in detail and found that most of the supposed “human footprints” were elongated tracks made when dinosaurs walked with their heels touching the ground, with the toe marks filled in by mud and hard to see. When cleaned or weathered by rain, the dinosaurs’ toe marks emerged.
Today even some creationist organizations urge people not to use these tracks as evidence. Other OOPArts said to show dinosaurs and humans coexisting include the Meister print and the Cretaceous “finger” fossil. Famous OOPArts are listed on the OOPArts page.
