Ever since the founding of the Kolbe Center, almost 22 years ago, scientists on our advisory council have conducted important research into evidence for dinosaur and human co-existence. Our team has arranged for the C-14 dating of many dinosaur bones over the last two decades, the results of which provide overwhelming evidence for the rapid and recent burial of most of the fossil record in a Global Flood a few thousand years ago. Led by the late, indomitable retired research chemist Hugh Miller, affectionately known as “Hugh the Elder,” numerous Kolbe members have also participated in excavations in the Paluxy River bed in Glendive, Texas, where dinosaur and human footprints have been found in the same Cretaceous rock.
The main member of our leadership team who has been carrying on the work of Hugh Miller is Ademar Rakowsky, who has visited the Paluxy River bed several times and who has written an excellent summary of the history of the Paluxy dinosaur and human footprints which has just been posted on the Kolbe website. In this newsletter I would like to share a section of the article, in which the author demonstrates the authenticity of the Paluxy footprints.
THE HUMAN FOOTPRINT
Important to keep in mind is the fact that human feet are unique in the animal world: they each have five toes that generally point forward, with some splaying (Fig. 19).
Figure 19. The Human Foot.[24] (Figure 1 online) The bones of the human foot are designed to transfer the weight of the body from the calcaneus bone forward to the phalanges, with the big toe pushing the body forward.
Unlike the animals closest to man in anatomy, the apes, humans have an adducted (aligned with centerline) big toe that helps us push forward as we walk: the big toe of an ape tends to point to the side, and serves as a grasping digit in addition to locomotion (Fig. 20). Ape feet, lacking arches, are made for grasping, not for upright walking.
Figure 20. Comparison of Ape and Human Big Toes.[25] The ape big toe is for grasping, and aimed off-center for locomotion. The human big toe is aimed forward, and used exclusively for locomotion.
Also, human feet are notable for having a large heel bone, and short toes as compared with the apes (Fig. 21).
Figure 21.[26] (Figure 1 online.) Comparison of Ape and Human Foot Bones. Both illustrations show the bones of right foot of a human and a chimpanzee. The human heel is larger and the toes shorter. The chimpanzee big toe is thinner-boned and to the side rather than center-aimed.
Figure 22. Arches of the Foot.[27] They transfer the weight of the body from heel to big toe during stride. (From https://www.physio-pedia.com/Arches_of_the_Foot)
The human foot is designed for bipedal locomotion, a function unique among mammalian animals. Its structure reflects that (Fig. 22): a large heel in back for holding full body weight during stride, longitudinal (lengthwise) and transverse (width-wise) arches for shock absorption and mid-stride weight transfer during mid-stride, a ball in front of the arches to transfer weight to the toes close to a stride’s completion, and toes serving as stabilizers and for propulsion for the next stride, with the big toe doing most of the work.
Because of its unique function the human foot leaves a print unique in the animal world. In soft material the human footprint shows a large heel at the back, a figure-eight-type narrowing in the middle, where the arches are, and forward-pointing toes (with big toe prominent) that come out of a wide ball at the front.
That said, recognizing a human footprint in whatever medium it is left in, whether a wet shape on dry rock or an impression in mud or soft sand, is straightforward. If pertinent details, like toes especially, are missing from the print, one can argue that a print is merely an elongated oval hole or the damaged impression left by any creature, human or not. That’s why in such cases it is important to look at the impressions made in the entire trail, if a trail exists, to determine from the other prints what creature made the impressions. If one is honest in one’s science, one will accept the finding of the uniquely shaped human print at face value, and not allow philosophical presuppositions to lead one to the denial of the obvious.
KEY HUMAN FOOTPRINTS
Despite having come across a large number of emails, photographs, articles, personal correspondence, etc. among the files of the late Hugh Miller, a Columbus, Ohio-based Paluxy investigator since the 1980’s, for whom the author worked before the end of Mr. Miller’s life, these files including various accounts and photos of finds as they happened, controversies, and even a case of vandalism of a human print, the author has chosen to focus on the key finds because, given the current intense philosophical/religious opposition to evidence supporting the Young Earth paradigm, it is important to present evidence that is difficult for anyone to refute.
The area in question is featured on this map (Fig. 23) from the personal files of the late Mr. Miller.
Figure 23. Paluxy River Study Area (Annotations by author.)
The river winds quite a bit and, from the author’s personal experience of the portions in town (E on map), by the Creation Evidence Museum (C), and the prime investigational area (A) on and near the McFall Ranch, it flows in a narrow, rocky channel of varying depth consisting of a bed of stepped horizontal limestone strata, with little sediment on them. The channel sides are staircase-type outcrops of horizontal limestone beds with some loose slabs and vegetation. Above the channel sides one finds a multi-foot layer of alluvium consisting of fossil-rich gravel, sand, and loamy soil (Fig. 24); this alluvium extends from the channel in spots in level, field-sized patches, like one would expect to find in the flood plain of any river. Beyond the alluvium areas, the land rises into savannah-vegetated hills with largely flat to rounded tops, but exhibiting the staircase bedrock in many places.
Figure 24. Alluvium above the riverbank on the McFall Ranch. A on map. (Photo by author.)
The authenticity of the footprints themselves along the Paluxy is supported not just by the unique shape of the human foot, but also frequently by mud pushups between the toes and along the sides of the foot, which is what one would normally expect of the prints of any creature walking through a muddy substance, which the assorted layers of limestone would have been before hardening, even by evolutionary thought.
In the 1950’s, O.W. Willet discovered the print along the banks of the Paluxy at the current site (D) of Dinosaur Valley State Park[28]. It is unmistakably human. Mud pushups are evident between and around the toes as well as along the foot margins.
Figure 25a. Willet Print. Note mud pushup on outer side of foot. (This and Figure 25b from https://www.footprintsinstone.com/the-footprints/o-w-willet-fossil-human-footprint/)
Figure 25b. Willet Footprint. Held for scale.
Figure 25c. Willett Print. Enlarged to show detail. Note mud pushups between the toes and around the outside of the foot. (Photo for this Figure, as well as 25d and 25e, courtesy of David Lines of the Creation Evidence Museum.)
Figure 25d. Willett Print. Closeup of toes.
Figure 25e. Willett Print. Closeup of arch and heel.
The Burdick footprint was found in the area on the map at F, from a higher stratum on the bank of Cross Branch Creek.[29] It too, besides the unmistakable human anatomy, has mud pushups between the toes and around the foot. Multiple cross-sections through the print reveal mud or calcite crystal alignments around the toe contour, indicating that it really is a print, not a forgery.
Figure 26a. Burdick Print. The slab was cut in multiple places for cross-section imaging.
Figure 26b. Burdick Print. Cross-sectioned. (Photo courtesy of David Lines of the Creation Evidence Museum. Same credit for c, d, e, and f.)
Figure 26c. Burdick Print. Cross-section through toe region, big toe at right. Note semicircular calcite crystal alignment under second toe from left.
Figure 26d. Burdick Print. Close up of cross-section through impression of second toe from left, to show calcite crystal alignment around toe, indicating pressure.
Figure 26e. Burdick Print. Big toe on left. Note darker mineral particle alignment around contour of big and middle toes.
Figure 26f. Burdick Print. Closeup of big and middle toe region to show dark mineral particle alignment around toe contours, indicating toe pressure on the particles when rock was still mud.
Arguably, the crown jewel of the Paluxy River area footprints is the Alvis Delk print, found by Alvis Delk along a Paluxy River tributary in 2000. Initially, the slab of rock had a dinosaur footprint on it, and he had taken it as an addition to his fossil collection. Intending to sell the print eight years later to help pay off medical debt, he cleaned off the mud and found a human print within the tip of the dinosaur impression.[30] (Fig. 27)
Figure 27a: Alvis Delk Print. (All Figure 27 photos courtesy of David Lines of the Creation Evidence Museum.)
Figure 27b: Alvis Delk Print from a different angle and lighting conditions.
Figure 27c: Alvis Delk Print: Note the deep imprint of the big toe as well as the friable structure of the rock itself: a more marly layer that took impressions more readily, but crumbles more readily as well when hardened. Also, note mud pushups between the toes of both the human and dinosaur.
Figure 27d: Alvis Delk Print closeup to highlight friability of the rock.
Figure 27e: Alvis Delk Print: Closeup of rock texture. Note the many laminations and the grainy/crumbly texture.
Figure 27g: Alvis Delk Print. Closeup of Human big and middle toe prints.
Figure 27f: Alvis Delk Print: Further enlargement to show rock texture.
The distinct human heel, arch, and five forward-pointing toes are clearly visible, as are mud pushups between the toes. Multiple X-rays and spiral CT scans have shown density changes under both the dinosaur and human feet (Fig. 28), indicating that the then-liquid mud was moved and compressed by overlying weight, thus precluding the possibility of hoaxer carving, which would have had a rock matrix of even density or density variations unrelated to the shape of the carving.
Figure 28a: Alvis Delk Print: CT scan Results. (Enlargements follow. Figure 28 credits same as for Figure 27.)
Figure 28b: Alvis Delk Print. Enlargement to show pertinent CT Scan slices.
Figure 28c: Alvis Delk Print. Enlargement of pertinent slices showing density variations in rock under both the human and dinosaur prints, a phenomenon impossible to duplicate by carving.
Figure 28d: Alvis Delk Print during CT scan at Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas.
Figure 28e: Alvis Delk Print during CT scan as Dr. Carl Baugh (r.), Director of the Creation Evidence Museum in Glen Rose, TX) and a hospital staff member look on.
Figure 28f: Alvis Delk Print. Hospital staff member at the control console of the CT scanner during scan.
Figure 28g: Alvis Delk Print. The CT scan was done on November 25, 2008, the year that Mr. Delk uncovered the human print when cleaning mud off preparatory to selling what he thought was a slab with only a dinosaur print.
It is a shame that even within the ranks of those who believe in the literal historical truth of the sacred history of Genesis the Paluxy footprints are often dismissed as fakes or as misinterpretations of dinosaur footprints by ignorant amateurs. As Ademar Rakowsky has demonstrated in this excerpt from his article on the Paluxy footprints—and even more elaborately and persuasively in the complete article just posted on the Kolbe website—the Paluxy tracks provide proof, beyond any reasonable doubt, that dinosaurs and humans have always lived (and died) together on earth.
Yours in Christ through the Immaculata in union with St. Joseph,
