15000 year old native American Cast Fossil Footprint

The Triassic period where you live, and for hundreds of miles in most any direction, well, that rock was laid down at least 199,000 million years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the earth and there were active volcanoes in NJ and PA, at least. While other sandstones in other parts of the world can indeed be of a different age they are at least 199,000 million years old where your rock came from. It is not a human footprint. Although, you might bust it open to see if it has a dinosaur footprint in it and look for them by splitting rocks in your general area.
 

I do not see evidence of it being anything other than a rock, either.
 

If the OP says it's a fossilized footprint then it's a fossilized footprint. Them's the rules, right? No naysayers allowed.
 

What you are describing is a "trace fossil". That is the remains of where something has been (like a footprint that silted in and then the strata hardened - leaving a fossil).

But what you have does not appear to be a trace fossil. Just a rock coincidentally looking like the shape a foot might leave. Think about it. If there was a footprint, and the silt covered it and then hardened into rock - it would look like a hole (the depression) or a bump (the cast) where the "filled in" bit and the yards and yards of silt around it that all was the same rock as the "fossil". It would not look like a foot in 3-D.


These are trace fossils of footprints. Part of a large section of rock. Not a bunch of foot sized casts.

tracefossilfootprints.webp
 

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