In the Karoo Basin of South Africa , an unusual detusk fauna is paint on a stone wall . Archaeologists have antecedently think over whether the artwork depicts a mythical creature from the realm of phantasy , but novel inquiry make the bold title it was inhale by a dicynodont , an extinct species that lived long before humans .
If true , it indicates the autochthonous people of southern Africa were familiar with the prehistoric animate being before it was scientifically draw .
The painting was created by the San the great unwashed of southern Africa between 1821 and 1835 . Called “ the Horned Serpent venire , ” the example express a long - embodied animal with downward - turned ivory that does n’t match any animal be in the region today .
An illustration of the rock art in the new study (top) and a replica model of a dicynodont-like animal (bottom).Image credit: Julien Benoit (CC-BY 4.0) /Adwo/Shutterstock.com
It might look like a walrus at first glance , but these marine mammal live near the North Pole on the other side of the world . Alternatively , you might paint a picture it ’s just a being from the “ spirit world ” of the San – but these figure are almost always inspired by physical reality .
In a novel study , Julien Benoitfrom the Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand makes the character that the tusked frame is inspired by thefossil of dicynodont , a chunky - body herbivore with downward tusks that lived in this part of the world until ~200 million year ago .
Many cultures research the domain of fogy before Western scientist did .
There ’s decent grounds of the San mass key prehistorical fossils and enthrall them across vast length . It would n’t be a reaching to imagine that a dodo discovery ignited someone ’s vision andinspired their artwork . Indeed , it is fence extinct animals often make their fashion into the acculturation of the San .
Benoit also excuse the San citizenry have several myths of prominent , long - gone animal roaming the region . The study cites an account statement from 1905 that explain how the San sometimes talk about their ascendent coming into contact with “ great grotesque savage , exceeding the elephant or hippopotamus in bulk . "
dicynodont experience long , long before any humans were around , but this insight exhibit the San people were precipitously mindful of nonextant animals and a different fourth dimension before their own .
By digging into the mythology of the San people , Benoit notice the horn lifeform fits into the figure of the “ rain - beast . ”
“ Of course at this point it is speculative , but the tusked animal on the Horned Serpent panel was likely paint as a rain - animal , which entail it was probably involved [ in ] rain - making ceremonial occasion , ” Benoit told IFLScience .
“ During rain - making ceremonial occasion , the San enter a state of enchantment and enter the realm of the dead to take in rainwater - animals and impart the rain back to the world of the living . By picking a species such as a dicynodont , that they knew was extinct and thus deadened , they likely hoped this rain - beast had some increased authority to bridge the two worlds , ” he added .
It ’s remarkable that the Horned Serpent gore go out to 1835 at the latest , but dicynodont was not scientifically described until the 1840s .
Speaking to IFLScience , Benoit say that the workplace of historiographer Adrienne Mayor has shown how “ many culturesexplored the worldly concern of fossilsbefore Western scientists did . ”
“ The Native Americans knew about fossils before colonisation and rede them in various ways , some imply they experience they belong to long - gone animals . The San , in southern Africa , also pick up fossils , as exemplified by the Bolahla sway shelter , in which they carried a dinosaur phalanx – which may be , by the agency , the first time a dinosaur pearl was ever expose , ” Benoit noted .
As is often the cause in thefields of astronomyand biota , it face like the depth of Indigenous knowledge has been massively underestimated .
The report is issue in the journalPLOS ONE .
