 |
| Kuppenhole Rock Art |
In the last post I reviewed the earliest reports of the
so-called African Dinosaurs and found them inconclusive at best and outright
hoaxes at the worst. Several of these
early sightings mention native rock art of these mysterious saurians. Maybe
they can clear up the puzzle?
The most commonly reproduced of these images are some
African rock art from Kuppenhole, Tanganyika (Tanzania). A copy of this art can
be seen at the head of this articles and it is clearly a picture of a giraffe
as can be seen by its mane and ossicones. Comparisons to other native drawings
of giraffes conforms this.
 | |||
| The Kuppenhole 'dinosaur' compared to various giraffes in African Rock art |
Dale Drinnon of FRONTIERS OF ZOOLOGY thinks the animals found
below the ‘dinosaur’ in the Kuppenhole picture are a Sivatherium and two seals. According to him the
ungulate has “multiple horns” that mean that it is “probably a Sivatherium.”
There is just one problem; the animal does not have multiple horns. It
has two horns just like the majority of bovids in the world and is clearly either
a roan (Hippotragus equinus) or sable (Hippotragus niger) antelope, both of which are native to Tanzania.
 |
| Sable antelope (on the left) and roan antelope (on the right) |
As for the “seals” they are so vague and stylized it is hard to tell what
they are: seals, rabbits, monkeys, or my personal suspicion – Two men, one naked
and the other wearing a headdress.
Makal also sites same Zambian cave paintings reported by Clark in 1959. They are a group of three animals on one
panel. The short limbs, thick necks, and long tails are consistent with
depictions of lizards or crocodiles. The short snouts show that they are
lizards, probably monitors. The quadrupedal body, proportions, short necks and
large heads rules out sauropods or any other dinosaur.
 |
| Zambian "Dinosaurs" |
The last piece of native art that is supposed to show the Mokèlé-mbèmbé
is this “Little Gold Dinosaur” found by Manny Staub in a set of Ashanti
balance-scale weights. Cryptozoologists
have claimed it represents a Brontosaurus, an Iguanodon and even a
Tyrannosaur. Most people however, even
Dale Drinnon, suspect it is simply a monitor lizard.
 | ||
| The Little Gold "Dinosaur" |
Therefore, of three
supposed African Dinosaur native depictions two show lizards and one shows a
giraffe, a Hippotragus antelope, and possibly some naked men. None show
dinosaurs.
What about
photographs? The Kasai Rex photos are often given as the best ones of the
so-called African dragons. Let us look at them next.
Sources:
Drinnon, Dale. (Tuesday, 6 November 2012). REPOSTING: Congo
Dragons And The Colossal Confusions Over The Colossal Beasts. Frontiers of
Zoology. http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2012/11/reposting-congo-dragons-and-colossal.html
Drinnon, Dale. (Sunday, 17 April 2011) Surviving Sivatheres.
Frontiers of Zoology. http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2011/04/surviving-sivatheres.html
Mackal, Roy P. (1987). A Living
Dinosaur? In Search of Mokele-Mbembe. E.J. Brill.
Senter, Phil. (2012). More “dinosaur” and “pterosaur” rock
art that isn’t. Article number: 15.2.22A. Copyright Palaeontological
Association, July 2012. http://palaeo-electronica.org/content/pdfs/321.pdf
No comments:
Post a Comment