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Greetings @jay-pelletier ! At first glance, your specimen does bear the formal appearance of a footprint. But, it is rather distorted and thus lacks some of the symmetry I would expect from a trace fossil like a footprint. There is a possibility it could be a result of geological processes like erosion. Do you have any information on where it was collected? It could help with an ID.

Yes, I found it walking along the Cottonwood River just outside of Quesnel British Columbia Canada. It’s more of a stream than a river. It could be anything, but I don’t believe my pictures do it justice and I’m worried about trying to clean it up due to not having any experience. I’d hate to ruin it in any way. I’m waiting to hear back from a few people that I’ve sent the pictures to. All of our museums or any other outlet that deals with this kind of thing are still closed. I’m definitely convinced it’s a footprint though. 🤷🏻‍♂️

@jay-pelletier I would certainly like to believe it’s a trace fossil, but there are some diagnostic considerations that still make me a little skeptical. One thing I can tell you is that you most likely collected it in Quaternary aged strata. So, it’s not older than 2.6 million years. Also, you could try contacting some American museum with ichnofossil specialists who could review your photos and see what they think. Anthony Martin at Emory is a good contact and has been featured in myFossil related groups.

Oh, well thank you very much! That information is greatly appreciated! That will give me much more to work with. I’ve always been interested in the sciences, but I’m 100% entry level. Thanks again for your input Matthew. I know that my excitement is only growing and will until somebody can tell me, at least with some consensus, that it’s not an early human footprint that I have here! I have more pictures as well, but I can only seem to add 5 at a time. 🤔

Rockd is also great app for finding more info on the geology of the area you are collecting. You can type in Quesnel on the map tab search and tap the exact location of the collection site and post it here if you don’t feel comfortable sharing the GPS data.

Most welcome and good luck! It’s certainly an interesting specimen! And it’s a toss up for me between a possible trace fossil and a really convincing pseudofossil. Let us know what you find out from the folks you emailed! Also, the Fossil Project has some great intro videos for fossil collecting and preparation on YouTube. Happy Collecting!