An interesting, but unanswerable question is:
What would Meldrum have done if Chilcutt had instantly declared all of his "dermal ridges" to be casting artifacts?
Matt noted, "I learned from Dr. Meldrum that he had seen ridges spontainously develop on test casts some years ago for which he had no solid explanation. He may have discovered this process."
So, he might have said, "I thought so".
But tests were done in his lab after Chilcutt identified dermal ridges on OM to see if they could have been caused by the pour.
Regarding the "wicking effect", which is in question, he said this:
"I just wanted to add a significant qualifier that Scott (Herriot) and others seem to repeatedly understate or altogether neglect. Matt's findings address a specific set of circumstances -- i.e. casting with relatively thick cement in extremely fine dry wicking material at very warm temperatures. These conditions were indeed present at the Blue Creek/ Onion Mtn track ways. They were certainly not present at the Skookum heel imprint, the Walla Walla
River tracks, the Elkins Creek track, GA cast, the Hyampom tracks, the northern Idaho tracks, or any of the Elk Wallow and associated tracks (Blue Mtns, WA). Matt has done a great job exploring the artifacts that may accompany casting under specific conditions, and more tests are called for.
But let's be accurate in the characterization of the state of affairs regarding the presence and interpretation of dermals in footprints generally."