The Meister Print

The Meister Print (also known as the Meister Footprint) refers to two trilobites in slate that appeared to be crushed in a human shoe print. The print was cited by creationists and other pseudoscience advocates as an out-of-place artifact, but was debunked by palaeontologists as the result of a natural geologic process known as spall formation.

May be an image of text that says '© Ceausu ©CeausuCristian Cristian'

In 1968, William Meister was searching for trilobite fossils in 500-million-year-old strata known as the Cambrian Wheeler Formation near Antelope Springs, Utah. He discovered what looked like a human shoe print with a trilobite under its heel after breaking open a slab. The supposed footprint was used by Melvin A. Cook as evidence against evolution in an article he wrote in 1970. Cook was not a paleontologist and his conclusion was criticized by experts. Upon investigation the print showed none of the criteria by which genuine prints can be recognized, and the shape could best be explained by natural geological processes.

According to Brian Regal “several studies showed the print was, in reality, an example of a common geologic occurrence known as spalling, in which slabs of rock break away from each other in distinctive patterns. This particular case of spalling had created a simulacrum vaguely suggestive of a shoe print.”

 

Related Posts

Behistun: The Stone That Speaks

High on the sheer limestone face of the Zagros Mountains, a king’s voice is frozen in stone. This is the Behistun Inscription, carved by the command of…

Tafoni: The Earth’s Slow Canvas

On the wild edge of Northern California, where the Pacific breathes its salt-laden breath onto the land, the sandstone reveals its secret life. This is not a…

Aes Rude: The First Currency of Trust

In a wooden chest near Siena, time has preserved the humble seeds of an empire. These are not coins, but their ancestors: aes rude, rough, broken lumps of…

The Petrified Forest: A Memory of Wood and Stone

In the painted desert of Arizona, the earth is littered with the ghosts of forests. This is not wood, but its perfect stone echo—a petrified log from…

This is the first pink granite statue depicting the portrait of the 3rd Pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty in Egyptian history.

The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced on December 11 that archaeologists had recently discovered and excavated a rare bust of the famous ancient King Ramses II near…

Pompeii: The Atrium of Frozen Time

In the silent heart of Pompeii, a house holds its breath. This atrium, sealed by the wrath of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD and then unearthed centuries…