Researchers find out who the mysterious creature from rock paintings in South Africa was
Kyiv • UNN
Researchers have identified a mysterious creature with tusks in a rock painting in South Africa as an extinct species of dicynodont.
A strange creature with tusks depicted in the rock art of the indigenous peoples of South Africa is a long-extinct species that predates the dinosaurs. This is reported by the Independent, according to UNN.
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A study published on Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE found that a mysterious animal painted by South Africa's San people in the early 1800s may have been inspired by an extinct species.
Scientists have long tried to identify the long-bodied animal with tusks curved downward, which does not correspond to any known modern species.
The Karoo Basin in South Africa is known to have many well-preserved fossils, including animals with tusks called dicynodonts, which are often found during excavations.
Now, scientists suspect that the figure with tusks in the rock art can be compared to dicynodont fossils. According to them, this interpretation is supported by San myths about large animals that once roamed the region.
If the artwork is found to be a true representation of a dicynodont, a species that became extinct before the dinosaurs, the San people's depiction could predate the first scientific description of the ancient beasts by at least 10 years.
The drawing was made no later than 1835, which means that this dicynodont was depicted at least 10 years before the Western scientific discovery and naming of the first dicynodont by Richard Owen in 1845,
He also added that this work confirms that the first inhabitants of southern Africa, the San hunter-gatherers, discovered the fossils, interpreted them, and incorporated them into their rock art and belief system.
