Did gardener find fossilized footprint?

Man thinks rock with four-toed indentation might be prehistoric

By Susan Lazaruk, The Province
August 6, 2009

Last summer, sneakered feet were turning up in B.C. waters with mysterious regularity.

This year, a couple in northeastern B.C. found a footprint -- and it too has them stumped.

So Neil and Earlene Bitterman are now doing a bit of sole-searching.

About a week ago, Neil was mowing the lawn at the couple's home in Hudson's Hope when a small watermelon-sized boulder threatened to churn up the lawn mower blades.

Before tossing it on the rock pile with the others that litter his property, something made him stop.

He and his wife, Earlene, cleared away some debris to discover a four-toed indentation in the rock they think may have been made by someone standing barefoot on their tiptoes or running.

"My size-10 foot fits in there perfectly," said Neil, 48.

"It has caused quite a stir in the community," said Earlene, with the visiting local looky-loos all wanting to slide their own feet into the imprint.

The web lists a number of fossilized human or hominid footprints, some in Tanzania dating back 3.5 million years.

The Bittermans have sent photos to paleontologists in Canada and the U.S. and onto online fossil forums, noting their small town of 1,100 an hour from Fort St. John is a hotbed of paleontology and home to many marine reptile fossils and dinosaur footprints.

They have heard nothing back, except for a lukewarm response from Alberta's Royal Tyrrell Museum and a few forum comments, including one from England accusing them of being Creationists intent on proving the existence of trolls.

Earlene said they haven't ruled out that it could have been made by a saber tooth or prehistoric sloth.

"I'd sure like someone who knows the business to see if it's a print or if it's just an anomaly of some sort," said Neil.

After seeing a photo, the Tyrrell's Dr. Don Brinkman said in an e-mail via the museum's public relations department that the rock is likely a pseudo fossil, something that looks like a fossil but isn't.

He referred questions to Richard McCrea, a paleontologist with the Peace River Paleontology Research Centre who specializes in footprints.

McCrea is out in the field for at least another week and couldn't be reached.

If it turns out not to be a significant find, the Bittermans will be happy to keep it in their home.

"It would be quite a conversation piece," said Neil.

See: http://www.theprovince.com/technology/gardener+find+fossilized+footprint/1864762/story.html