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    10-Aug-87 19:49 MST
Sb:  APtx 08/10 0132  Tooth-Tracks
Fm: Executive News Svc. [72135,424]
To: 72135,424

   GLEN ROSE, Texas (AP) -- A new controversy has opened concerning findings in
the layers of limestone along the Paluxy River. 
   Creationists seeking to prove that men coexisted with dinosaurs say they have
found a human tooth among fossilized tracks of the giant reptiles. 
   Scientists say they doubt the tooth is human, but the Rev. Carl Baugh, a
Baptist minister from Dublin, asserts that "implications of this discovery are
far-reaching." 
   "Being found in scientific context with dinosaur tracks, it essentially
disrupts the evolutionary geologic column and reconstructs our concepts of life
origins in favor of creationism," Baugh said. 
   Tracks said to be human first found in the area in the 1920s have been used
to substantiate the theory that man and dinosaurs roamed the earth together
before the great flood, described in the Bible. 
   A study by two scientists, however, challenged the human track theory, saying
the imprints were actually made by dinosaurs walking with an unusual gait. 
   Ronnie J. Hastings, chairman of the science department at Waxahachie High
School, and Glen Kuban, a computer programmer and amateur paleontologist from
Cleveland, said they discredited Baugh's findings. 
   In response, John Morris, a leading creationist, admitted that some of the
prints were mistakenly identified as human. 
   Baugh did not concede defeat. He took his latest find, made in June, to a lab
associated with the University of Texas at Austin. 
   "I took the tooth along with other teeth to the laboratory for
identification, and basically they were stumped about what the tooth was, and
they could not rule out that it could be human," he said. 
   Melissa Winans, collection manager and research associate at the laboratory,
said the tooth is probably that of a Mesozoic bony fish related to modern gars
and bowfins. 
   Hastings praised Baugh for taking the tooth to a lab. 
   "Rarely does Baugh behave so scientifically that this action alone is to his
credit. This case will take a lot of investigating to see if it actually is a
human tooth." 
   "I don't really get excited when he (Baugh) makes new discoveries. I think a
lot of what he really does is speculate and until actual proof and
identification is made, it wouldn't necessarily mean that man actually lived
with dinosaurs," Kuban said. 
   Baugh said his find is a distinctive component of the creation theory. 
   "Our tooth is distintively human anatomy. It has been identified as being
human by several dentists, and they work with teeth every day." 
   

Copyright 1987 by the Associated Press.  All rights reserved.