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Other Footprints
In the summer of 1882, inmates working in the quarry at the State Prison near Carson City, Nevada, brought to light a layer of sandstone covered with fossilised animal tracks, among them a number having belonged to the extinct mammoth. What caused considerable scientific consternation, however, was the fact that several human tracks were also found. The tracks were in six series, each with alternate right and left tracks. The stride was from two and a half to over three feet, and the individual prints were from 18 to 20 inches in length - that of a giant. The straddle - the distance between the lines of left and right prints - was 18 to 19 inches. Geologist Joseph Le Conte read a paper on the investigation done on the Carson City tracks to the California Academy of Science on August 27,1882, and attempted to explain them as the marks left by an extinct giant sloth that lived during the late Pliocene - over 2 million years ago. But sloths, in order to walk upright on only two feet, as the fossil tracks indicate, would have had to have used their tails as a balance, and there were no tail grooves in the sandstone. Not only this, but a comparison between the Carson City tracks and known sloth impressions showed several dissimilarities. The sloth's prints have marked toe protuberances as well as definite claw marks; the Carson City tracks have neither. The Carson City tracks, in fact, showed signs that their maker had worn some type of sandal or foot protection – definitely not the habit of an animal.