News Anthropology Fossils of an extinct animal may have inspired this cave art drawing Roughly 200-year-old African rock art predates the scientific description of dicynodonts A long-bodied creature’s downward sloping tusks (blue lines at upper right), painted by southern Africa’s San people in the early 1800s, may have been influenced by fossils from extinct mammal relatives called dicynodonts, a researcher says. Julien Benoit (CC-BY 4.0) Share this:EmailFacebookTwitterPinterestPocketRedditPrint By Bruce Bower September 18, 2024 at 2:00 pm African rock art depicting a mythical tusked creature may mirror the look of fossils of real-life ancient mammal relatives called dicynodonts.