Help identifying fossil...... Footprint?

[pattyjh]

Any idea what this might be? I found it on the shore of Lake Michigan while Petoskey Stone hunting.

 

[jdsly]

Way cool!!!!not a fossil hunter but i like it. Nice find

 

[digging440yrs]

COOL FIND !!

 

[Ninjafossils]

It does look very footprint like. Almost too footprint like. This has lead me to believe that it may be man-made. Possibly someone made a footprint shape or took the foot of a modern animal and made the print. Why? No idea. I could very well be wrong and you might have an actual fossil print. But due to his perfectness, the rock composition, and the Michigan's geological history I would say it's not want you are looking for.

 

[Gaspipe]

I've collected fossil dino tracks in central Massachusetts for years and just from looking it looks a little too perfect .

 

[Perico]

Can you show us all sides of the stone please?

 

[pattyjh]

Here are some pictures..... Also is a picture of the beach were I found it. It has been a couple years ago that I found it, but this pic was taken last weekend while I hunting petoskeys with girlfriends. This beach is FULL of cool rocks and fossils! It's called Christmas Cove and is at the top of the Leelanau Pennisula. My favorite place in the world!

 

[Rivers rat]

This is so cooooool i got a dog footprind on a roman roof tile but that one is a killer


Well foung


RR

 

[Red James Cash]

I believe dino footprints can only be made,preserved, in sedimentary rock,limestone,sandstone,dolomite layers are needed.Your rock almost reminds me of quartz.

 

[Inyo]

Deleted by author.

 

[Las Vegas Bob]

For a rock to have such a rounded/tumbled shape to it and still have such a defined impression leads me to believe it is not a fossil but some other form of anomaly. The petoskeys you mentioned are usually nice and smooth as this stone should be from the waters action on it.

 

[Harry Pristis]

If you follow the side "toes," you find they extend in a circle all the way around the structure. The "toes" are wear that follows seams, including a crack for the center "toe". My guess is there is a pelecepod within the matrix, and we're seeing just a suggestion of what's buried.

 

[Las Vegas Bob]

If you follow the side "toes," you find they extend in a circle all the way around the structure. The "toes" are wear that follows seams, including a crack for the center "toe". My guess is there is a pelecepod within the matrix, and we're seeing just a suggestion of what's buried.

I would agree with this.

 

[Cactus Pete]

I, too, notice the circular fracture pattern in the stone, which follows the outline of the "heel" of the footprint, and up to the two outside "toes." Looks more to me that there's a conchoidal stress pattern in the stone, and an impact from the top direction of the pattern, oriented along the middle toe and directed towards the heel, fractured out the three toed-pattern. In short, this looks like a chance mechanical fracture - but a very cool one, indeed!

Or, maybe it was left by a mechanical visitor to earth - call it a "Transformer footprint."

BTW - I'm a registered professional geologist in Washington State.