No, the footprints are real. She was presenting that finding at the conference along with her interpretation. That's how the scientific community works. The information is put out to the peers and they can ignore it, support it with more research or refute it as they feel appropriate.
I'm on your side.
If there are fossil footprints then they are real since faking fossil footprints (done primarily from the young earth crowd) are crude to the point of absurdity.
Frankly I find the notion of a water dwelling bipedal dinosaur to be facinating.
BTW I am fully aware of how scientific theories are formulated and verified by evidence.