It’s been more than 10 years in the past ten years since scientists first announced they’d discovered fossilized footprints of dinosaurs in the middle of the Yukon River. Then, when the team made their findings public, they added that it was highly unlikely that those who live near the river knew that dinosaur footprints were found close to them.
However, Nulato local Rita Painter can prove them not to be.
“It was probably 30-35 years old, which is the time they had a fish wheel in this area,” Painter said.
Painter is seen in her family’s oversized aluminum boat on the riverbank in Halfway Camp, a fish camp located 12 miles away from Nulato. She recounts the story of a massive fossilized dinosaur footprint that has been discovered nearby.
“We were on our way to Grayling They offered us a cup of tea.” Painter said. “And as we were having tea with them they gave us this rock. It was massive and it had as if, a footprint in the stone.”
Painter claimed that the rock could be about a foot broad and approximately eight inches tall.
“It was definitely an ankle, but the toes were different. And it was embedded into the stone,” Painter said.
The husband of the woman, Dean Painter, said that the footprint contained three toes.
The Painters presented their tale to three scientists who stayed for 16 days in the Yukon River in August. The team hoped to gain more information about the reptiles of the past and birds that lived in this region.
The Painters description quite accurately describes the footprints left by a bipedal plant-eating dinosaur, also known as an ornithopod. The discovery is helping scientists reach their goal of being able to comprehend what locals know regarding the footprints.
Martha Turner grew up fishing along the riverbanks, where the Painters shared the story of their encounter with dinosaur footprints. It’s also the place where scientists have discovered numerous similar footprints. “Oh wow. This is so cool. It’s like, our camp has many dinosaur trails” added Turner after hearing Painter’s story.
Turner Nulato, who is the tribal administrator, has said that her mother who was born at Halfway Camp, never mentioned any three-toed footprints that were large prior to this. She’s now eager to inquire about it.
In Kaltag which is a small village thirty miles further downriver from Nulato the information that a research group found dinosaur tracks in the area this summer did not come as a surprise.
“Ever when we’ve ever been so huge and ever since we were 3 feet tall, we were aware of it,” said Patrick “Paddy Bun” Madros Jr.
Madros Jr. claimed that he’s found old footprints left by massive reptiles along the riverbanks throughout his life. He grew up in an ice fishing camp further downstream.
“When we flip rocks in the bluffs, and we’re making a deadman we place a stick on top and then we put it in a sandbag and then we can see footprints.” Madros Jr. explained.
Deadman is a large pile of wood that is buried in the silt and sand. It is used to anchor a fishing wheel to the ground.
Madros Jr. claimed that he would always find preserved footprints in the rock, however, he was too engaged in at fishing for subsistence with the family members to pay any focus on them.
“You will never consider it. It’s just another stone. Toss it in the pile” Madros Jr. said.
“I do not think this is something that people should think about and say, ‘we’ve got to look around and dig up here”” stated Kaltag the mayor Violet Burnham. She also said that the science is interesting but it’s not what her community is about. “Because there are plenty of other issues we’re facing as a group which are greater importance.”
Burnham is a native of Kaltag. She said that the situation has drastically changed and this has been difficult for the community in which jobs are scarce, and recently the salmon populations that which people depend on to eat have plummeted.
“In my life, we moved from having no telephones to having phones, to the internet and 24-hour news. From a subsistence life to a cash-based economy” Burnham said.
Paleontologist Tony Fiorillo said that he is delighted to hear about people’s memories and tales of footprints. Fiorillo serves as the executive director of the New Mexico’s Museum of Natural History and Science and has studied the dinosaurs of Alaska for over 24 years.
“I find that intriguing to me because, if you look back in time, what were they saying? Thirty-to-35 years? We’re getting closer to the time when dinosaurs were first discovered in the state of California,” Fiorillo said.
Fiorillo along with his coworker Paleontologist Yoshitsugu Kobayashi, also spent time travelling along the Yukon River this year. They spent a lot of the time collecting data in order to create 3D pictures of each track they encountered. Instead of taking the footprints to store them in an archive of a museum, they also created numerous models from the footprints. Kobayashi stated that they should be kept where locals are able to view the footprints.
“It’s it’s not yours” Kobayashi said. “The objects belong to the location.”
