Cambodia: Dinosaur images noticed in temple ruin
Sent via email by Keir:
A reader has sent to All News Web these photos of the stunning Ta Prohm Temple (pictured below) deep in the jungles of Cambodia.This temple is the work of the remarkable Khmer civilization which lasted from the 800’s AD until the 1400’s AD.
The temple is covered with the most intricate of carvings. The reader who was visiting the area noticed very distinct and clear images that seem to depict a Stegosaurus (pictured above), indicating that this creature might well have survived up until the Khmer era in the region. One expert on Khmer ruins has told us that it is unlikely that these images are a recent addition to the temple.
The cryptozoologists should find this interesting….
Link and photo from allnewsweb.com.
Thanks again Keir!
that is, without a doubt one of the coolest thing i have ever seen
It is, but the color of the stone around the relief bothers me – it looks slightly off.
That and it seems to be coming from a less than credible (in my opinion) site.
I’ve seen this posted elsewhere, and in fact in a friend’s trip photos. The carving exists, but whether it’s contemporary is, I think, unknown. It’s also been suggested that the way the carvers depicted local lizards just happened to have stegosaurus fans. And.. correct me if I’m wrong, but have scientists actually all agreed that stegosaurs had those fins oriented vertically?
Not to mention that nobody assumes that all the thousands of Naga statues in the temples represent real creatures. Though I guess nobody has found any Naga bones, either.
http://fishheadsalad.com/tossing/steg/steg.htm
Most likely, it’s a rhino.
Monitor lizard with a frill? A salamander lizard? Nothing in the image indicate scale of the beast.
Or, heaven forbid, the locals actually managed to dig up a stegasaurus fossil. Occam’s Razor?
These temple carvings might be an indication that Creationists are on to something, after all. Is there any way to make sure they don’t see these?
Ready for a logic-based smackdown? Here goes…
The head is much too large in proportion to the rest of the body to be consistent with any members of the family Stegosauridae. The fact that this photo was taken at an angle is somewhat perplexing as it seems to needlessly obscure details of the head region.
One of the most interesting things about this group of dinosaurs was that their hind legs were much longer than their front legs. The robust humerus and shoulder blade probably served as sites for powerful muscle attachment that indicate a semi-sprawling posture in the front. However, their hind legs were very long and pillar-like which along with other features seem to indicate an upright hind-limb stance. This carving appears to show the opposite.
And while I’m amazed I even have to point this out, Stegosaurus, and other members of that group of dinosaurs, had giant spikes on the end of their tails. That was what made them so cool! Even the primitive members have some form of spike going on.
Lastly, the Stegosaur group was already in decline by the Cretaceous, coincident with the rise angiosperms (flowering plants) as well as the rise of new types of herbivorous dinosaurs. This group clearly peaked during the Late Jurassic and maybe didn’t even survive until the K/T boundary where the other then extant dinos bought it. The Late Jurassic was 159-144 million years ago, while the extinction of the dinosaurs was 65 million years ago. That’s 65,000,000 years compared to the 800-1400 years this civilization was round just for some perspective.
Explaining their survival even up to the extinction event itself is difficult so it seems preposterous to conclude that they could have survived through the event with a sustainable breeding population to get through, among many other obstacles, the Ice Age that ensued to then be seen and carved by humans in relatively modern times.
@CNolbe: Great link. Should have read that before I posted myself. Apologies if I stepped on your dino (more likely a rhino) toes.
@Fleshcross: It’s highly unlikely that the Khmer people would have found a Stegosaurus fossil for several reasons.
1) There are no stegosaurs known from that area of Asia. That doesn’t make it impossible, simply less likely.
2) Even the article being cited points out that this is a jungle temple. Jungles tend to not have any fossils. They are very wet (which is erosive). They have high levels of bioturbation from scavengers and ridiculous plant root structures that are regularly disrupting soil sedimentation.
3) Even if they did find a fossil it would not likely have been recognizable as a stegosaurus.http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Stenops.jpg This is an image of a stenops (same group as stegosaurus) as it was found after it had been carefully excavated by expert paleontologists. As you can see, it’s very disarticulated and even modern scientists argue of the particulars of its reassembly.
Occam’s Razor relies on the introduction of the fewest new variables which in this case would seem to mean it was a rhino or pulled from human imagination/mythology.
@Haupt:
Hey, no, I’m just glad I wasn’t the only one at the party.
regardless of what it is supposed to represent, it is still a cool photo showing artistic representation of a long lost people. If it is real that is.
I am by no means any kind of authority, but the harder I look at this photo, the more it looks like a Rhino to me. I think the “Back Spines” or “Fins” or whatever that makes it look like a Stegosaurus are something else. Like maybe the artist didn’t finish carving out those sections. Very cool photo tho, none the less. What happened to the Khmer Civilization? 800-1400… 600 hundred years? Not too bad, as these things are measured.