Fossils, Rock Art, and Ancient Mysteries: San Cave Paintings and Dicynodonts

Rediscovering Ancient Knowledge through Fossils

A mysterious animal painting¹ on a cave wall in South Africa’s Free State Province has long puzzled scientists. Depicted with two large downward-pointing tusks, the animal doesn’t resemble any current African species, and early speculations linked it to legendary creatures like walruses or saber-toothed cats². However, emerging research³ suggests that the painting may depict an extinct creature—specifically a dicynodont, an ancestor of mammals that thrived millions of years ago in the region.

The artwork showed a long animal with two tusks and was reconstructed by researchers. Julien Benoit (2024) PLOS One