{"id":536438,"date":"2026-03-14T18:58:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T18:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/536438\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T18:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T18:58:12","slug":"scientists-discover-rock-paintings-in-a-cave-revealing-strange-creatures-from-a-time-long-before-humans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/536438\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Discover Rock Paintings in a Cave Revealing Strange Creatures from a Time Long Before Humans"},"content":{"rendered":"

A mysterious rock painting in South Africa\u2019s cave could be the first-ever artwork of an animal that disappeared 250 million years ago. The San people\u2019s \u201cHorned Serpent Panel\u201d features a strange creature with tusks and a long body, even though this animal never lived anywhere near there. The discovery has scientists asking if ancient rock art could actually record prehistoric creatures long before scientists did.<\/p>\n

Painted between 1821 and 1835, the panel includes common animals found in the area. But one creature stands out, looking very different from the others. For years, scientists were puzzled by its appearance. Now, researchers suggest that the San people may have drawn inspiration from the fossilized remains of an extinct species, the dicynodont, which roamed the Earth millions of years ago.<\/p>\n

The San People\u2019s Connection to Nature<\/p>\n

The San people, indigenous to Southern Africa, have a long tradition of creating rock art<\/a>. Their paintings often depict animals,human figures, and mythical beings. One of the more puzzling figures on the \u201cHorned Serpent Panel\u201d is the creature with tusks and a strange, elongated body.<\/p>\n

This particular creature<\/a>, though depicted as a spiritual being, has baffled scientists for years. According to Julien Benoit<\/a>, a researcher at the University of the Witwatersrand the fossilized remains of long-extinct species were common in this area.<\/p>\n

He suggested that these ancient bones<\/a> could have shaped the San\u2019s mythology, leading them to represent creatures that once roamed the Earth long before humans existed.<\/p>\n

\"AncientAncient cave painting and a fossil resembling a walrus. Credit: University of the Witwatersrand<\/p>\n

An Exceptional Fossil Site<\/p>\n

The Karoo Basin is one of the richest fossil sites in the world, full of ancient remains from creatures that lived hundreds of millions of years ago. A study, published in PLOS ONE<\/a> noted that among these fossils are dicynodonts, a group of plant-eating reptiles, \u00a0with features almost identical to those of the creature depicted by the San.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came across the Stow and Bleek book about San rock art and when I saw their beautiful reproduction of that tusked animal, I immediately thought that this could well be a dicynodont,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n

He added that the fossils of dicynodonts are particularly common in the area around the rock art site. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis finding is extraordinary. It suggests that the San people were engaging in palaeontology long before Western scientists even knew these creatures existed,\u201d\u00a0he noted in a statement <\/a>from the University of the Witwatersrand.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn illustration of the tusked creature from the Horned Serpent Panel. Credit: PLOS ONE<\/p>\n

Myths, Folklore, and Prehistoric Life<\/p>\n

This connection between myths and fossils isn\u2019t new, but the San\u2019s rock art offers an extraordinary example of how ancient cultures might have recorded extinct species through their stories. While the San likely saw the creature as a spiritual being, their artwork may actually be the earliest known depiction of an animal that no longer existed by the time humans arrived.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe dicynodont may have been depicted as a \u2018rain-animal,\u2019 a mythical creature in San cosmology. They might have held special significance in San paintings.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Benoit explained, studying how these ancient stories and rock paintings tie into real prehistoric creatures could reveal more about how early humans<\/a> understood the world around them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis painting provides compelling evidence that they not only discovered these fossils but also attempted to reconstruct the living animal in their art.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mysterious rock painting in South Africa\u2019s cave could be the first-ever artwork of an animal that disappeared…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[49,48,66],"class_list":["post-536438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}