Mantracks: a True Story of Fake Fossils

Clickbait Title: Footprints in Stone III - The Reckoning

Back in 2013 a couple random dudes decided to make a pseudo-sequel to Footprints in Stone called Forbidden History: Footprints in Stone II, which is essentially just an extended interview with Carl Baugh and his protegee Aaron Judkins. I was really tempted to call this video Footprints in Stone III, but restrained myself and consigned that in-joke to the clickbait title.

Produced by Dan Olson
Written by Nathan Landel and Dan Olson
Animation by Megan Lloyd
Camera by Kara Artym and Dan Olson
Editing by Dan Olson and Nathan Landel

[JinStreams]

Finally, Dan Olson talking about feet for a feature length video

[lilybunne]

I won't lie, I breathed a sigh of relief when Roland Bird's story didn't end with "so desperate for approval he fakes footprints and there's a scandal!". Good on him for his big and legit find!

[vvitchrozen]

"the resulting work was so poor, so misleading, that it prompted an 11, 000 word response" followed by
Hbomberguy's voice was *chef's kiss*

[ThirdChildFilms]

it's up!! Thanks for having me aboard for illustrating!

[findmeinthefuture.]

5:00 "The human footprints were cartoonish, resembling the artist's guess at what a human footprint would look like. These dinosaur tracks were a different story. They were so good that the creator must have been working from a reference."

I've already figured out the twist. Both carvings were done by a dinosaur. He had to guess what a human's foot looks like, but he could just use his own foot for reference for the dinosaur tracks.

[gilberthamilton]

"Where you have seen only one set of fossil footprints, my child, is when I carried you."
- Raptor Jesus

[PowerPakGames]

If you consider the mantrack carvings as art, this is the most winding and complicated application of Death of the Author in history.

[BigJoel]

the story of the poop that looks like a scared alligator is inspirational tho. imagine if it was your own poop

[Omegan]

"Sectarian infighting is older than the Young Earth even thinks it could be"

To quote Dan Olson of Folding Ideas from his video 'This is Financial Advice' : "Savage."

[MenacingBanjo]

"Sometimes facts alone can't convey how much a person meant to their community."

This is a fantastic quote about why stories often become exaggerated.

[jumpingfreak]

I re watch foldingideas videos with such regularity, i was legitimately confused when i saw a video with a thumbnail i didnt recognize

[Bean]

Listening to the song: wow it really is amazing that this river and rock has recorded such a vast swath of Earth’s history. What a beautiful metaphor that all these beings walked on the same river banks across tim- oh goddamnit they mean it literally.

The reveal of each additional verse is diabolical, well played

[Mxradio]

when i was young, my parents took my sister and i to the creation museum under the justification of its novelty. it was a tourist stop on the way in a larger road trip. none of us believe (or, indeed, believed then) in any of the creationism ideas, and so my sister and i were told very seriously to not make a scene in the museum, not to laugh or make fun to avoid offending the curators or anyone visiting taking the museum seriously. this was a difficult task for two preteens, but my sister and i managed, which made it all the funnier when my dad stumbled on a sign proclaiming that the reason there are similar species across continents is because during the flood these animals clung to driftwood to stay afloat, and the currents of the flood carried them to their new home, and my dad yelled, "what the fuck?"

[jenndoesstuff]

Ooh, I never thought I'd see a Folding Ideas video where I'm already deeply familiar with the subject matter. I'm a geologist from North Texas and these human/hominid tracks are well known as Young Earth Creationist fakes. The area where the tracks can be found is now owned by a "creation museum" and it's incredibly obvious that they are a poor attempt to suggest that humans and dinosaurs lived at the same time, thus disproving the popular models of geologic time and proving the Earth is 6, 000 years old. I'm interested to see if Dan comes to that same conclusion in the video.

Edit: Loved it! Geologist approved! "[thing] is the passion play performance of the idea of science" is a quote I will now steal and incorporate into my repertoire, thanks. Also, I loved the very Canadian attempt to do regional southern American accents.

[Wub-rvxx]

lol, “smaller human = devolution!” that’s some 40k thinking right there 😂

[LGR]

Once you busted out the flannelgraph board and started talking flood geology, I knew I was in for some stuff… such surreal evangelical Southern Baptist homeschooled childhood memories I’d half forgotten, but there they are again.

[forrestjemming]

I always like hearing HBomb’s voice in these videos. Glad to know he’s out there somewhere, collaborating with friends, possibly making an 8 hour video

[nickblomgren]

_"This simplistic theology creates an equally simplistic geology: Things are what they look like to a child."_
I would like to remind everyone that ten years ago, Senator James Inhofe, brought a snowball into the senate as proof that climate change was not a thing.

[HobGungan]

Me for the first 20 minutes: "Gosh, what a wholesome story about the discovery of some sauropod tracks. My lifelong dino-nerd side is beaming."
Me at the same time as Dan: "Wait...what was that about Genesis?"

[Dradeeus]

I love that finger so much. It's not even a fossil apparently, it's just a petrified finger, flesh, nails, bones, everything. Dunno how it got petrified. Medusa, I guess.