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Anthropology/"permian footprint"

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Expert: - 5/7/2011


Question
I heard about this many years ago, and just found it again online. Am wondering what explanations have been offered on it?

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1CQ4Sk/www.forbiddenhistory.info/%253Fq%253Dnode/1

Answer
I heard about it, too, back when I was a kid.  Most of these things are either dinosaur footprints altered by weathering (ancient or modern) or hoaxes -ancient animal footprints modified by recent humans.
Humans were not extant in Permian times.
FYI -this Forbidden Archaeology site is run by a religious organization with a decidedly anti-science agenda.
Don't put a lot of stock in what you read there. Many of these discoveries are culled from old (early 20th, late 19th Century) newspaper accounts where, when there wasn't enough news, journalists just made stuff up.  (Unlike today of course....).
John Shea

Anthropology

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John Shea

Expertise

Questions about Old World prehistoric archaeology (especially Stone Age) of Europe, Africa, and Western Asia, prehistoric human and hominid behavior, primitive technology, origin of modern humans, extinction of the Neandertals.

Experience

>20 years as a professional anthropologist based at a research university.

Publications
Journal of Field Archaeology, Journal of Archaeological Science, Lithic Technology, Evolutionary Anthropology, Current Anthropology, Mitekufat HaEven (Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society), Paléorient, Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, American Anthropologist, Geoarchaeology.

Education/Credentials
Ph.D (Anthropology) Harvard University, 1991.
BA (Archaeology) Boston University, 1982.

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