Emily Chan
The Indigenous people of South Africa likely knew about the dicynodont before Westerners did. San myths even tell of large animals, bigger than elephants or hippos, that once roamed southern Africa.
The dicynodont might have had spiritual meaning and was purposely portrayed as part of a cultural ceremony because it was extinct.
“During rain-making ceremonies, the San enter a state of trance and enter the realm of the dead to catch rain animals and bring the rain back to the world of the living,” said Benoit.
“By picking a species, such as a dicynodont, that they knew was extinct and thus dead, they likely hoped this rain-animal had some increased potency to bridge the two worlds.”
Benoit added that imagination was not a source of the artwork since the San people only painted things they saw around their environment, whether it was fossils or natural characteristics of the landscape.
The study was published in PLOS One.
