Scientists have established which creature was drawn by ancient people

A strange creature with tusks, which is present in the rock art of indigenous peoples of South Africa, may have been inspired by an extinct species.

They were drawn by representatives of the South African San people in the early 1800s, write Independent.

The Karoo Basin in South Africa has many well-preserved fossils. Among them are animals with tusks called dicynodonts.

This interpretation is supported by the myths of the San people about large animals that once lived in this region.

Dicynodonts became extinct before the dinosaurs. Drawings of the San people may predate the first scientific description of these creatures by at least 10 years.

"The drawing was made no later than 1835, which means that this dicynodont was depicted at least 10 years before the Western scientific discovery and naming of the first dicynodont by Richard Owen in 1845. This work confirms that the first inhabitants of southern Africa, the hunter-gatherers of the San tribe, discovered fossils, interpreted them and incorporated them into their rock art and belief system," said co-author of the study Julien Benoit.