A mysterious tusked animal depicted in South African rock art might portray an ancient species preserved as fossils in the same region, according to a study published September 18, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Julien Benoit of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. 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. As the San people are known to have included various aspects of their surroundings into art, including fossils, Benoit suggests the tusked creature might have been inspired by an extinct species. Read moreSection: ArtifactsAncient WritingsNewsHistory & ArchaeologyRead Later