"Twice now this year, researchers have noticed man-made etchings in rock that indicate possible awareness of extinct creatures. In the belief system of evolutionists and their requisite millions of years, such awareness is impossible, and so they come up with other explanations.
Q: Why do they rule out eyewitness experiences of these creatures living among them?
The assumption of deep time leads to rejecting any explanation that infers overlap of humans with creatures that went extinct tens or
hundreds of millions of years ago. Those who doubt deep time, by contrast, can be more open minded about that possibility.
South African rock art possibly inspired by long-extinct species (18 Sept 2024, Science Daily). Dicynodonts (“two dog tooth”) are members of a motley group of pre-dinosaurian tetrapods classified as therapsids and synapsids. Today they are only known by their fossilized bones. South Africa is particularly rich in fossils of dicynodonts, some of which protrude from the ground. No other living land animal has their characteristic downward-curved tusks. It was a big surprise, therefore, when Julien Benoit of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg found petroglyphs (rock art) resembling dicynodonts.
Benoit published the evidence in PLoS One, supplying photographs of the rock art that Benoit thinks resemble dicynodonts, and artist’s depictions of the creatures. As an evolutionist, how does he explain this? He speculates that the San people found fossil dicynodonts and depicted them in their rock art. This is curious, given that dicynodonts were not even recognized until Richard Owen named them in 1845.
It’s not an unreasonable speculation; even young-earth creationists
might find it doubtful to think that dicynodonts were walking around in 1821 to 1835 without more eyewitness reports by colonizers and missionaries. The point, again, is that Benoit cannot even consider it as a possibility the artists drew a living dicynodont.
---His explanation requires that the San people were fairly good at paleontology, able to depict what a creature looked like from its bones. Update 21 Sept 2024: Benoit wrote an article at The Conversation reposted at Live Science that gives additional details. He says that the 1835 date is “at the latest” but that “the San have inhabited the area for thousands of years.” This could make the petroglyph much, much earlier. Benoit claims that dicynodonts lived 265 to 200 million Darwin Years ago and were the dominant species in the area. The artists portrayed the creature as covered with bumps; Benoit shows a fossil of mummified skin of a dicynodont covered with bumps—really 250 million years old? He ruled out other creatures that the petroglyphs might represent. Walruses have downward tusks but never lived in sub-Saharan Africa, he says. A San myth spoke of “enormous brutes” that lived in their area. If the petroglyph depicts a dicynodont, it was drawn in the “death pose” common to many fossils. Others have commented that the “dinosaur death pose” (arched neck, body bent like a banana) represented suffocation by drowning (16 Feb 2012). A Flood, perhaps?
A remarkable assemblage of petroglyphs and dinosaur footprints in Northeast Brazil (Troiano et al., Nature Scientific Reports, 19 March 2024). This example is more subjective, yet interesting, since everyone is fascinated by dinosaurs. A location in Brazil has numerous fossilized dinosaur tracks in rock, made by both theropods and sauropods. Leonardo P. Troiano and three colleagues have found a “remarkable assemblage of petroglyphs” that appear to be associated with the dinosaur tracks.
*How does he know they are Cretaceous rocks? Because they have Cretaceous dinosaur tracks in them. How does he know the dinosaur tracks are Cretaceous? Because they are found in Cretaceous rocks, dummy!
Since everyone “knows” that humans and dinosaurs did not co-exist, the team needed an explanation. Once again, they reasoned that early peoples who lived in Brazil must have been good paleontologists.
Readers can look at the photos and drawings in this open-access paper and draw their own conclusions. Most of the petroglyphs do not resemble the tracks (circles, rectangles, and nets), but are drawn near them, often in the same rock exposure next to the footprints. The team believes that the juxtaposition of the art in rock containing dinosaur tracks establishes the pre-colonial people’s interest in the tracks.
Q: What did the artists think they were drawing? They never heard the word dinosaur, obviously, since the word was not even invented until Richard Owen coined it in 1841.
The assumption of deep time leads to rejecting any explanation that infers overlap of humans with creatures that went extinct tens or
South African rock art possibly inspired by long-extinct species (18 Sept 2024, Science Daily). Dicynodonts (“two dog tooth”) are members of a motley group of pre-dinosaurian tetrapods classified as therapsids and synapsids. Today they are only known by their fossilized bones. South Africa is particularly rich in fossils of dicynodonts, some of which protrude from the ground. No other living land animal has their characteristic downward-curved tusks. It was a big surprise, therefore, when Julien Benoit of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg found petroglyphs (rock art) resembling dicynodonts.
"The Horned Serpent panel is a section of rock wall featuring artwork of animals and other cultural elements associated with the San people of South Africa, originally painted between 1821 and 1835. Among the painted figures is a long-bodied animal with downward-turned tusks which doesn’t match any known modern species in the area."
Benoit published the evidence in PLoS One, supplying photographs of the rock art that Benoit thinks resemble dicynodonts, and artist’s depictions of the creatures. As an evolutionist, how does he explain this? He speculates that the San people found fossil dicynodonts and depicted them in their rock art. This is curious, given that dicynodonts were not even recognized until Richard Owen named them in 1845.
"There is archaeological evidence that the San people might have collected fossils and incorporated them into their artwork, but the extent of indigenous knowledge of paleontology is poorly understood across Africa.
Further research into indigenous cultures might shed more light on how humans around the world have incorporated fossils into their culture."
It’s not an unreasonable speculation; even young-earth creationists
"The ethnographic, archaeological, and palaeontological evidence are consistent with the hypothesis that the Horned Serpent panel could possibly depict a dicynodont…. This would imply that the San may have i) discovered dicynodont fossils, ii) interpreted them as long-extinct species, iii) made a painting of one of them at La Belle France, and iv) integrated them into their worldview."
---His explanation requires that the San people were fairly good at paleontology, able to depict what a creature looked like from its bones. Update 21 Sept 2024: Benoit wrote an article at The Conversation reposted at Live Science that gives additional details. He says that the 1835 date is “at the latest” but that “the San have inhabited the area for thousands of years.” This could make the petroglyph much, much earlier. Benoit claims that dicynodonts lived 265 to 200 million Darwin Years ago and were the dominant species in the area. The artists portrayed the creature as covered with bumps; Benoit shows a fossil of mummified skin of a dicynodont covered with bumps—really 250 million years old? He ruled out other creatures that the petroglyphs might represent. Walruses have downward tusks but never lived in sub-Saharan Africa, he says. A San myth spoke of “enormous brutes” that lived in their area. If the petroglyph depicts a dicynodont, it was drawn in the “death pose” common to many fossils. Others have commented that the “dinosaur death pose” (arched neck, body bent like a banana) represented suffocation by drowning (16 Feb 2012). A Flood, perhaps?
A remarkable assemblage of petroglyphs and dinosaur footprints in Northeast Brazil (Troiano et al., Nature Scientific Reports, 19 March 2024). This example is more subjective, yet interesting, since everyone is fascinated by dinosaurs. A location in Brazil has numerous fossilized dinosaur tracks in rock, made by both theropods and sauropods. Leonardo P. Troiano and three colleagues have found a “remarkable assemblage of petroglyphs” that appear to be associated with the dinosaur tracks.
"The three prominent outcrops feature fossilized footprints of theropod, sauropod, and iguanodontian dinosaurs from the Early
Cretaceous Period. Adjacent to these dinosaur tracks, indigenous petroglyphs adorn the surface. The petroglyphs, mainly characterized by circular motifs, maintain a striking resemblance to other petroglyphs found in the states of Paraíba and Rio Grande do Norte. This study primarily endeavors to delineate the site’s major characteristics while concentrating on the relationship between the dinosaur footprints and the petroglyphs."
*How does he know they are Cretaceous rocks? Because they have Cretaceous dinosaur tracks in them. How does he know the dinosaur tracks are Cretaceous? Because they are found in Cretaceous rocks, dummy!
Since everyone “knows” that humans and dinosaurs did not co-exist, the team needed an explanation. Once again, they reasoned that early peoples who lived in Brazil must have been good paleontologists.
"The petroglyphs represent a unique and significant record, given
their direct association with dinosaur fossil tracks. This ensemble of archaeological and paleontological evidence unequivocally indicates that human populations during the pre-colonial period interacted with and likely assimilated the fossil record, incorporating such record into their graphical expression, a cultural one, and consequently integrating it into its collective identity. Particularly noteworthy is the evident intentionality in creating petroglyphs near the footprints, revealing active engagement with the fossil material, suggesting that these traces not only caught the attention of the native community but were meaningful and became integrated into their knowledge repertoire."
Readers can look at the photos and drawings in this open-access paper and draw their own conclusions. Most of the petroglyphs do not resemble the tracks (circles, rectangles, and nets), but are drawn near them, often in the same rock exposure next to the footprints. The team believes that the juxtaposition of the art in rock containing dinosaur tracks establishes the pre-colonial people’s interest in the tracks.
Q: What did the artists think they were drawing? They never heard the word dinosaur, obviously, since the word was not even invented until Richard Owen coined it in 1841.
So there’s the two cases: evolutionary scientists unable to consider the possibility that early peoples saw extinct creatures.
The interesting thing in these two cases is how they could not even consider the alternative explanation, that people actually witnessed creatures alive then that are extinct today. Creationists, not beholden to deep time, can consider that possibility. They may reject it and agree with the evolutionists’ explanations in these particular cases. But they are not required by their worldview to do so."
CEH