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South African Rock Art Appears to Draw Upon Extinct Creatures

Discover Magazine - Thu 19 Sep 24

The San people acted as paleontologists and used fossil finds as a basis for stories and pictures.

A Fossilized Creature May Explain a Puzzling Painting on a Rock Wall

New York Times - Wed 18 Sep 24

The artwork suggests that the San people of South Africa have an Indigenous knowledge of paleontology that predated Western approaches to the field.

Fossils of an extinct animal may have inspired this cave art drawing

ScienceNews - Wed 18 Sep 24

Unusual tusks on preserved skulls of dicynodonts influenced the look of a mythical beast painted by Southern Africa’s San people, a researcher suspects.

South African rock art possibly inspired by long-extinct species, suggests research

Phys.org - Wed 18 Sep 24

A mysterious tusked animal depicted in South African rock art might portray an ancient species preserved as fossils in the same region, according to a study published September 18, 2024 in the ...

South African rock art possibly inspired by long-extinct species, ScienceDaily - Wed 18 Sep 24

Mystery creature in South African rock art could be long-extinct species, study finds

The Independent - Wed 18 Sep 24

Tusked animal depicted in rock art doesn’t match any modern species

Archaeologist uncovers painting that may prove the existence of a mythical horned serpent

Daily Mail - Wed 25 Sep 24

A 200-year-old rock painting depicts an ancient, horned serpent. The painting seems linked to an ancient myth about large, extinct animals that once roamed southern Africa.

How Many Dinosaur Species Roamed Earth? It’s Surprisingly Hard to Know

Scientific American - Tue 24 Sep 24

The incompleteness of the fossil record complicates efforts to figure out how life on Earth is faring today

Duck-billed dino with absolutely enormous honker unearthed in Mexico

Livescience - Mon 23 Sep 24

The newly named dinosaur is unique to Mexico, and it's helping change scientists' understanding of dinosaur ranges across the Americas. ...

South African rock art of mystery creature 'strangely flexed like a banana' might be tusked reptile that predated dinosaurs

Livescience - Sat 21 Sep 24

Cave art created by the San, the indigenous hunter-gatherers of South Africa’s Karoo region, may have been inspired by fossils of long-extinct reptiles. ...

Remarkable 200-Year-Old Rock Painting May Depict a Strange Animal That Went Extinct 250 Million Years Ago

Smithsonian Magazine - Fri 20 Sep 24

The Horned Serpent Panel from southern Africa predates the first Western scientific description of the dicynodont, a large mammal ancestor with tusks, by at least a decade

South African Rock Art Depicts 260-Million-Year-Old Extinct Animal, Study Suggests

ScienceAlert - Thu 19 Sep 24

A creature older than the dinosaurs.

The perplexing puzzle of a ‘Horned Serpent’ cave painting

Popular Science - Wed 18 Sep 24

Somewhere in the Koesberg Mountains of South Africa, located deep in the arid Karoo region north-east of Cape Town, there’s an exquisite cave painting of a curious creature. The creature, ...

Five times more marine fish may be at risk of extinction: study

Mongabay.com - Tue 24 Sep 24

What’s new: The number of bony marine fish species at risk of extinction could be five times higher than previously estimated by conservation scientists, a recent study suggests. What ...

Biosignatures: Fungus Gnat Entombed In A 40-million-year-old Piece Of Amber

Astrobiology - Fri 20 Sep 24

A Danish amber collector’s find upon a wild North Sea shore in the 1960’s has proved to be of great and surprising significance. After having thoroughly examining the roughly 40-million-year-old ...

Forgotten Fossils: Mysterious Tusked Creature Unearthed in Rock Art

SciTechDaily - Sun 22 Sep 24

The research compares an 1800s painting of a tusked animal by the San people to local fossils. According to a study recently published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE, rock art in South ...

Hidden Neanderthal Lineage Found: “Thorin” Survived 50,000 Years in Isolation

SciTechDaily - Thu 19 Sep 24

The discovery of a Neanderthal named Thorin reveals a previously unknown lineage that diverged from other Neanderthals 100,000 years ago and remained isolated. This finding suggests that Neanderthals ...

Strange Tusked Animal in South African Rock Art is Permian Dicynodont, Scientist Claims

Sci.News - Thu 19 Sep 24

The Horned Serpent panel at La Belle France in the Free State province of South Africa was painted by the San people at least two hundred years ago. The post Strange Tusked Animal in South ...

Beautifully Preserved Comma Shrimp Fossil Found in Japan

Sci.News - Tue 17 Sep 24

Paleontologists have described a new species of fossil comma shrimp based on a well-preserved specimen found in the Japanese prefecture of Shizuoka. The post Beautifully Preserved Comma Shrimp ...

Why Termites Blow Themselves Up: The Fascinating Chemistry of Their Defense Mechanisms

SciTechDaily - Mon 16 Sep 24

Neocapritermes taracua termites carry a life-ending enzyme that, when mixed with another compound during attacks, produces a lethal liquid, sacrificing the termite to protect its colony. Older ...