Footprint

For other uses, see Footprint (disambiguation).

Jack Nicholson's foot and handprints outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

Footprints are the impressions or images left behind by a person walking. Hoofprints and pawprints are those left by animals with hooves or paws rather than feet, while "shoeprints" is the specific term for prints made by shoes. They may either be indentations in the ground or something placed onto the surface that was stuck to the bottom of the foot. A "trackway" is set of footprints in soft earth left by a life-form.

Footprints can be followed when tracking during a hunt or can provide evidence of activities. A print of a child's feet can be kept as a momento by parents, or those of a celebrity may be kept in a collection, such as that outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

Some footprints remain unexplained, with several famous stories from mythology and legend. Others have provided evidence of prehistoric life and behaviours.

Footprints in detective work

The print left behind at a crime scene can give vital evidence to the perpetrator of the crime. Shoes have different prints based on the sole design and the wear that it has received – this can help to identify suspects. Photographs or castings of footprints can be taken to preserve the finding. Analysis of footprints and shoeprints is a specialist part of forensic science.

Some detective work is relatively immediate, with criminals being tracked by the footprints they left in the snow leading from the crime scene to their home or hiding place. This is usually reported as a humourous story in news publications.

Ancient footprints

A fossilised dinosaur footprint from a fossil trackway at Clayton Lake State Park, New Mexico.

Footprints have been preserved as fossils and provide evidence of prehistoric life. Known as "ichnites", these trace fossils can give clues to the behaviour of specific species of dinosaur. The study of such fossils is known as ichnology and species known only by such evidence are known as ichnospecies. The Grallator is one example of a genus that has left no fossils other than ichnites.

The finding of footprints in the limestone beds of the Paluxy River near Glen Rose, Texas show what some people have interpreted as human footprints alongside those of dinosaurs. This sparked the man track controversy, believed by some Creationists to show that humans and dinosaurs coexisted.

Other footprint findings

• Laetoli – human footprints from the Pliocene era (3.7 million years ago) preserved in volcanic ash.
• Uskmouth – human footprints carbon dated to 4200BC preserved in clay.

Footprints in myth and legend

The footprint of the Buddha, known as Buddhapada.

• Buddha footprint – an aniconic and symbolic representation of the Buddha.
• The Devil's Footprints – an unexplained series of hoof-like marks that appeared in Devon, England on 8 February 1855 after a light snowfall during the night.
• Golden calf – in Islam dust from the hoofprints of Haizum, the winged horse of archangel Gabriel, is used to animate the Golden calf.
• Moso's Footprint – a 1m by 3m rock enclosure in Samoa made when the giant Moso stepped over to Samoa from Fiji, and the other footprint can be found on Viti Levu, the largest island of Fiji.
• Footprints of Bigfoot, a cryptozoological animal, are said to give proof to its existence.
• Sri Pada, or Adam's Peak, a mountain in Sri Lanka, has a large footprint-shaped impression in the rock at its summit, said by various religious adherents to be that of the Buddha, Shiva or Adam.

Footprints in popular culture

The imagery of footprints has been used in many areas of popular culture. Several poems and songs have been written about them, with the religious poem Footprints being one of the best known.

Footprints can be seen in some films when not intended, becoming a goof. When filming scenes in snow, sand or other easily-markable ground it is easy for the signs of previous takes or of crew movement to make it through to the finished film, such as in Touching the Void and Casino. Alternatively, the wrong type of footprints might appear, such as bootprints instead of hoofprints as in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.