{"id":137385,"date":"2024-09-18T18:04:10","date_gmt":"2024-09-18T18:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/18\/fossils-of-an-extinct-animal-may-have-inspired-this-cave-art-drawing\/"},"modified":"2024-09-18T18:04:10","modified_gmt":"2024-09-18T18:04:10","slug":"fossils-of-an-extinct-animal-may-have-inspired-this-cave-art-drawing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/18\/fossils-of-an-extinct-animal-may-have-inspired-this-cave-art-drawing\/","title":{"rendered":"Fossils of an extinct animal may have inspired this cave art drawing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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African rock art depicting a mythical tusked creature may mirror the look of fossils of real-life ancient mammal relatives called dicynodonts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abundant, exposed fossils in South Africa\u2019s Karoo Basin include dicynodont skulls with tusks that curve down and back, like those of the long-bodied animal depicted in roughly 200-year-old rock art<\/a> by the region\u2019s San hunter-gatherers, says paleontologist Julien Benoit. That painting appears among images drawn on a rock-shelter wall, dubbed the Horned Serpent panel, which include a scene of ethnic warfare known to have occurred as early as 1821, Benoit reports September 18 in PLOS ONE<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n