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LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) - Some Las Cruces-area residents are pushing for protection for thousands of ancient fossil footprints discovered 15 years ago by an amateur geologist.
"If the site isn't protected, our fear is it will be lost due to mining, looting and weather," said Keith Whelpley of Las Cruces, chairman of the Paleozoic Trackways Foundation, which was formed recently to push to protect the 290 million-year-old site in the Robledo Mountains.
The site changed what scientists know about the area, said Spencer Lucas, curator of paleontology at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History in Albuquerque.
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