A record of prehistoric life forms has been discovered at Serranía de la Lindosa in the Colombian Amazon rainforest. The 8-mile-long (13-kilometer-long) frieze of rock paintings created by some of the earliest humans to live in the region illustrates the diversity of Amazonia- from turtles and fishes to jaguars, monkeys, and porcupines. According to Jose Iriarte, a professor in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Exeter, unlike their modern counterparts, these were gargantuan creatures in their heyday.
But the discovery of what scientists term "extinct megafauna" among the dazzlingly detailed paintings is controversial and contested.
Other archaeologists argue the pristine condition of the paintings suggest a much more recent origin and that there are other plausible candidates for the creatures depicted. For example, the giant ground sloth identified by Iriarte and his colleagues could in fact be a capybara -- a giant rodent common to the local habitat.
Image: Last Journey Project
#IceAge #RockArt #GiantSloth #SerraniaDeLaLindosa #AmazonForest #Amazonia #archaeology