Ancient Elephant Carved into Bone – Could be Three Times Older than Stone Henge

Scientists describe what could be America’s oldest artwork.

A small piece of fossilised animal bone, with a carving of a prehistoric elephant scratched onto the surface could be the oldest example of artwork found to date in the USA.  Researchers from the University of Florida have suggested that this carving could date from as early as 15,000 years ago, making this relic many thousands of years older than the Egyptian pyramids and perhaps up to three times older than Stone Henge.

America’s Oldest Artwork

James Kennedy, an amateur fossil collector from Vero Beach, a holiday resort on the Atlantic coast of Florida was cleaning and inspecting his collection when he discovered the small carving a Mastodon on a piece of fossilised animal bone.  This relic could present tangible evidence that early human settlers lived in Florida, sharing their environment with huge prehistoric elephants and Sabre-toothed cats.  Already, one anthropologist involved in analysing the artefact has dubbed this fossil as the “oldest, most spectacular and rare work of art in the Americas.”

The piece of bone looks fairly innocuous at first glance, we ourselves at Everything Dinosaur have seen lots of bone fragments such as this, partially permineralised fragments of bone from river channels and such like that would date from the very late Pleistocene.  However, as James Kennedy cleaned and studied this piece of bone he was amazed to see that there was a carving of a prehistoric elephant on it.

The close up picture of the fossilised bone shows the faint outline of a prehistoric elephant with a pair of large tusks.  The head is at the right hand side of the picture.

The carving in the picture has been highlighted in red ink by Everything Dinosaur team members to reveal the outline of the prehistoric relic.

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s website for prehistoric animal themed craft ideas: Dinosaur Toys and Gifts.

Scientists at the University of Florida studied this artefact, not with the intention of dating it accurately, but initially in a bid to see whether the carving was a fake.  It had been thought that the engraving had been scratched onto the fossil bone very recently but tests showed that the fossil and its carving were the same date.

Scanning Electron Microscopy

Scanning electron microscopy allowed the researchers to examine the carving minutely.  Marks were made on the fossil and then compared to the engraving to help prove conclusively that the engraving was genuine.  All the tests indicated that this was the real thing, and that sometime between 13,000 and 15,000 years ago a person carved the image of a Mastodon into the bone.

Retired professor Barbara Purdy, a specialist in anthropology at the University of Florida commented:

“the exact age [of the object] is less important than what the artefact tells us about early humans.  The detail of the artwork itself suggests that the artist saw a Mastodon up close.”

The scientists are concerned that this ancient relic may be lost to the public forever as James Kennedy plans to auction the fossil instead of donating it to a museum.

Fear of Crocodiles an Ancient Human Trait

In the first episode of the BBC television series “Walking with Cavemen”, the episode entitled “First Ancestors” an adult Australopithecus afarensis is taking a drink from a river when a crocodile attacks, grabs the unfortunate hominid and drags him into the water to his death.  Although this scene was depicted in a fictional, albeit educational television series; this incident reflects what has been found in the fossil record, as some early hominid fossil bones have marks on them reputedly made by feeding crocodiles.

Most scientists had thought that these attacks were from Nile Crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus) or at least a very similar species to the large extant predator found in this part of Africa today.  However, a new study from a joint team of U.S. based scientists and researchers from the National Natural History Museum of Tanzania indicates that hominid attacks around 2 million years ago, may have been carried out by a different type of crocodile.

Monster Crocodile

Following a review of partial and fragmentary crocodilian remains from 1.8 million-year-old strata from the Olduvai gorge region of Tanzania, a new species of large crocodile has been identified, an animal similar in size to today’s Nile crocs, but one with a distinct crest of bone over the back of skull.  According to the authors of the crocodilian study, Chris Brochu, a vertebrate palaeontologist from the University of Iowa, Robert Blumenschine and Tanzanian Jackson Njau, it is this crocodile that may have terrorised our ancestors.

In the report, published in this month’s edition of the online journal PLoS One, this crocodile may have been the largest predator these ancient humans encountered in their East African world.

Commenting on the fossil evidence showing crocodile attacks on prehistoric people Chris Brochu stated:

“I can’t guarantee these crocodiles were killing our ancestors, but they were certainly biting them.”

It was Brochu who named and described this new crocodilian Crocodylus anthropophagus, the name means “man eating crocodile”, as Chris remarked he hopes that “people get the joke.”

The re-evaluation of the crocodile fossils found in the Olduvai gorge deposits indicate that this new species of crocodile could have been responsible for the attacks on people.  Certainly, our ancestors such as A. africanus et al were relatively small and light, many of them less than one metre tall.  Such small animals would have been no match for this 7-metre-long predator.

Crocodylus anthropophagus

Although roughly the same size as the modern reptilian apex predators of the Nile, the Olduvai crocodiles had thinner, more flared snouts and large horns that are more characteristic of a Madagascan crocodile that went extinct in the past few thousand years.

The discovery of C. anthropophagus points to far more diversity in African crocodiles in the past 2.5 million years than previously thought, Brochu stated:

“People have always perceived crocodiles as these slowly evolving, living fossils. That’s just nonsense.”

His team haven’t found many fossils belonging to C. anthropophagus, and none that is complete, so it’s impossible to determine its precise relationship to modern Nile crocodiles or when these particular man-eaters went extinct.  Crocodiles remain dangerous to humans today and a number of species are known to have attacked people and caused fatalities.  Our smaller ancestors had to cope with animals just as big as the ones we see in the Nile or in Australia today.

Perhaps, our fear of these scaly creatures began farther back in our prehistory than previously thought.  Humans reliance on freshwater and our underdeveloped senses when compared to other mammals would have made us vulnerable to ambush attacks from these freshwater predators.

A Replica of an Australopithecine

At home on the plains. An australopithecine.

The picture (above), shows an australopithecine model that was created by Bullyland of Germany.

To view the Bullyland range of prehistoric animal models: Bullyland Prehistoric Animal Figures.

The Chinese New Year – Year of the Tiger

The Chinese New Year, otherwise known as the lunar spring year started yesterday (February 14th).  As the Chinese traditional calendar is influenced by both the Gregorian calendar and the lunar cycle, the new year can start anytime between late January and mid February.  However, yesterday with the new moon cycle we moved from the Chinese year of the Ox into the new year of the Tiger (Geng Yin).

This is the biggest holiday in the Chinese calendar involving families getting together, parades the exchange of gifts and of course lots of noisy and spectacular fireworks.  Naturally, our interest in Chinese calendars has more to do with production schedules in factories these days but as it is the year of the Tiger it is an opportune moment to remind ourselves that the commonly used term for a Smilodon – Sabre-tooth tiger is not accurate.

Sabre-toothed cats are not closely related to modern Tigers, although they are members of the cat family (Felidae).  Sabre-toothed cats are members of a sub-family of cats called the Machairondontinae and the Smilodon genus had four species, although there is conjecture whether Smilodon californicus made famous by the fossil finds at La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles, is a true species or a sub-species of Smilodon fatalis.

To view a Sabre-toothed tiger model and other figures in the Papo model range: Papo Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal Figures.

A Model of a Sabre-toothed Cat (Papo Smilodon Model)

Papo Smilodon from Everything Dinosaur, part of the Papo “Les Dinosaures” model range.

Smilodon has also inspired a range of prehistoric plush and soft toys over the years.  It seems that fans of the movie “Ice Age” would like their own soft toy version of a Smilodon.

To view the range of prehistoric plush and soft toys available from Everything Dinosaur: Soft Toy Prehistoric Animals.

Named by the German paleontologist Plieninger in 1846, the moniker of Sabre-Tooth Tiger seems to have become associated with Smilodon through films and television documentaries.  We still use the “Tiger” term ourselves from time to time, to help customers find what they are looking for on our website: Everything Dinosaur, however, this term is not scientifically correct.

Wishing you all a happy and lucky Chinese new year.  Wishing all our customers and blog readers a very happy and prosperous Chinese new year.

The Evolution of Laughter – The Development of the Ability to Mock

Tickle a Gorilla, a Bonobo chimp (our closest extant relative); or an Orangutan and they will express pleasure with laughter but to use laughter to mock, or scorn such as you might hear in the Palace of Westminster at Prime Minister’s Question Time, that is a distinctly human trait.

A team of researchers from the University of Portsmouth (UK) have carried out research into the origin and characteristics of the ability to laugh in higher apes.  They conclude that only our species H. sapiens uses laughter to convey negative emotions such as sneering and mocking.  Our ancestors, and the vast majority of their descendants, laugh to convey positive emotions.  They laugh as they are enjoying themselves, according to this new study.

The Evolution of Laughter

However, over the millions of years of hominid evolution, more advanced human species developed laughter to scorn or ridicule others.  There is no fossil evidence to indicate a sense of humour or sense of sarcasm, however, at some point in our evolutionary line the role of laughter in a social context changed.

It is thought that the apes that roamed the primeval forests of some 16 million years ago were the first creatures to develop the ability to laugh.  This research led by Dr Marina Davila Ross (University of Portsmouth) shows that the extant species of ape use laughter slightly differently from each other.

In the complex research programme, which involved tickling various ape species and then gauging/recording their reactions, it was discovered that the Orangutan laughs when it is having fun.  This Asian ape projects a laughing sound that consists of a series of squeaks, to express delight and joy.  The African apes, such as Gorillas and the Chimpanzees have perhaps, a more sophisticated vocalisation of laughter.  These apes have learnt to use the sound to influence others as well as to express pleasure.  Chimps may laugh to encourage others to joy in their rough and tumble games, laughter in chimp society, according to this new study, can be used to influence other troop members or is the collective noun for chimpanzees a cartload?

Our species, has taken the sound and use of laughter further.  We use laughter to express negative emotions such as ridicule and sarcasm.  You only have to listen to our members of Parliament for plenty of examples.  Somewhere on our evolutionary line the role of laughter and its expression became more sophisticated.  Who knows, perhaps H. Heidelbergensis shared a joke at another person’s expense or do we have to go further back in the fossil record to find the origins of the use of laughter for an expression of negative emotions?

Did Homo habilis wandering the African plains 2 million years ago, use laughter to mock a troop member?  It may be fascinating to consider these points but given the virtually impossible task of uncovering fossil evidence to substantiate such claims, much of this will have to remain as conjecture.  The lack of extant human species to work with precludes conclusive results.

Commenting on her research, Dr Ross stated:

“Humans and the African ape developed laughter further than the Asian great ape to have an effect on others.  Something happened in the last five million years which means humans use laughter for a much wider range of situations than our primate ancestors.

Our species, uses laughter to convey a range of feelings and emotions, as Dr Ross states:

“Laughter occurs in close to every imaginable form of human social interaction, including to mock others.”

These findings, which are due to be published in the scientific journal of Communicative and Integrative Biology, show the differences in the use of laughter amongst extant species of great ape.  As hominids developed it seems that laughter as well as other vocalisations became more sophisticated and complex.  The common ancestor of humans and chimps may have laughed but it was a sound with a limited meaning, as Dr Ross comments:

“It [the sound of laughter] probably had little effect on the way others behaved.”

The research team also discovered that other animals made different sounds when they were tickled, but these may not be the same as laughter.  Anyone who has tickled their pet dog will tell you that the animal is able to express delight and pleasure at the sensation but this is not thought to be laughter in the strictly “human” understanding of the term.

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s website: Everything Dinosaur.