One of the earliest forms of ancient art was rock painting. More than 40 thousand years ago, people depicted animals – bison, deer, mammoths and other species. These were the animals that our ancestors hunted. This tradition was continued by the wild tribes of South Africa in later times. However, one of their drawings, discovered in the Karoo (a region in South Africa), made scientists puzzle over it. The fact is that it depicts an unusual animal with tusks. Researchers even suggested that people depicted a non-existent animal from a “fantasy world”. But this is very unusual for ancient people and later local peoples. A new study suggests that the drawing depicts a dicynodont, but this is an even stranger discovery, because this creature died out millions of years before people appeared.
The rock painting may depict an animal that died out 200 million years ago. Photo source: iflscience.com
The most unusual rock painting
The drawing in question was created by the San people in the early 19th century. It was called the “Horned Serpent Panel” because it depicts a long creature with large, curved tusks. However, the mysterious animal does not look like a snake at all, nor does it look like any other known creature that inhabits the region.
One might assume that the rock painting depicts a walrus, but these animals live on the other side of the world at the North Pole. As mentioned above, scientists initially assumed that this creature was from the spirit world. However, it is extremely rare for African peoples to depict creatures that do not exist in the material world.
According to a new study by researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand, the rock art depicts a dicynodont, a large herbivore that lived in the region some 200 million years ago. This suggests that the San people were familiar with the prehistoric creature before it was discovered and scientifically described. But how is this possible?
Dicynodont is an ancient herbivore that was larger than an elephant. Photo source: pikabu.ru
Researchers suggest that the drawing was inspired by the fossil remains of an ancient animal. There is evidence that the San people identified prehistoric fossils and even transported them over long distances. Perhaps this inspired a representative of this people to create a rock painting.
Dicynodont is an ancient herbivore
Dicynodonts were very large animals – their size could reach 4 meters. In size and weight, they exceeded the average savanna elephant. But there were also small species, the size of which did not exceed half a meter.
The animals had massive but short legs in relation to their bodies with powerful claws. Some of their species had growths on their skulls that resembled horns. Also, most species were characterized by the disappearance of almost all teeth, except for the upper canines. Later species developed tusks instead of canines. Presumably, dicynodonts had a horny beak, like turtles.
This is how the Sanu people depicted a dicynodont. Image source: iflscience.com
The animals were herbivores, but instead of chewing their food with their teeth, they crushed it in their mouths. So they had a horny (hard) covering of gums that replaced their teeth.
Could the South African tribe have seen a living dicynodont
The San have several myths about large animals that are now extinct but once roamed the region. In fact, a 1905 report by scientists describes San people telling stories of their ancestors encountering huge animals that were even larger than a hippopotamus or even an elephant. But it is unlikely that this could have been true.
By delving into the mythology of the people, scientists also discovered that the ancient tusk creature corresponds to the “rain animal” of the people’s myths. Moreover, it is most likely the “rain animal” depicted on the “Horned Serpent” panel. According to scientists, it probably participated in rainmaking ceremonies. During this ceremony, the San enter a trance state and, according to their beliefs, go to the realm of the dead to catch rain animals and use them to make rain.
This is what a dicynodont looked like, according to scientists. Photo source: iflscience.com
Why was the dicynodont chosen as the “rain animal”? Perhaps the San knew that this animal was extinct, which means it was also in the “kingdom of the dead.” For some reason, they believed that the animal had increased power, allowing it to unite the two worlds and even influence the weather.
Surprisingly, the drawing was created in the 1830s, but this animal was not scientifically described until the 1840s, decades later. Thus, the culture in Africa plunged into the world of fossils even before Western scientists did.
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It must be said that other ancient peoples also found fossils of extinct animals. For example, this applies to Native Americans before the colonization of America. They interpreted their findings in different ways. There is evidence that people understood that the remains belonged to extinct animals. As for the San, they found other fossils, such as a dinosaur phalanx in the Bolahla rock shelter. This may be the first time that people have found dinosaur bones.