Some curious fossilized footprints that were discovered during the 1930s in the bed of the Paluxy River near Glen Rose, Texas, by Roland Bird, a field researcher for the American Museum of Natural History. Some of the prints were dinosaurian and dated to the Cretaceous period about 100 million years ago. Others looked almost human. They showed signs of heels and arches in the appropriate places. However, the tracks ranged between 40 and 50 centimeters (15-20 inches) in length roughly twice the length of the average human foot and measured as much as 20 centimeters (8 inches) across.
Some creationists seized on the Paluxy tracks as proof that dinosaurs and human beings existed at the same time. Creationists, who reject the theory of evolution and insist on a literal interpretation of the Christian Bible, stated that the tracks proved that giant humans existed in ancient times, just as the Book of Genesis said. They believed that these humans and the dinosaurs died together in a Great Flood around 4000 B.C.E. Writers such as Brad Steiger, who do not hold creationist views, declared that the Paluxy tracks were evidence of an advanced ancient civilization of giant humans. The giants were wiped out through a combination of natural disasters and atomic war.