Ancient Cave Art May Depict Giant Bird Extinct For 40,000 Years

grrlscientist writes "Recently studied Australian Aboriginal rock art may depict a giant bird that is thought to have become extinct some 40,000 years ago, thereby making it the oldest rock painting on the island continent. The red ochre drawing was first discovered two years ago, but archaeologists were only able to confirm the finding two weeks ago, when they first visited the remote site on the Arnhem Land plateau in north Australia. 'Genyornis was a giant flightless bird that was taller and heavier than either the ostrich or emu. It had powerful legs and tiny wings, and probably closely resembled ducks and geese, its closest living relatives. ... Interestingly, Genyornis bones have been excavated in association with human artifacts in Cuddie Springs in the Australian state of New South Wales. It is likely that humans lived alongside these birds, and some scientists think that humans may have contributed to their extinction." Jamie recalled that in the essay "A Lesson from the Old Masters," in the volume Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms, Stephen Jay Gould thanks our ancestors who drew Irish Elk on cave walls for "providing the only possible evidence for a hump that would otherwise have disappeared into the maw of lost history."

Re:This just in!

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Hey, it's just the clueless archaeologists misinterpreting reality. What happened was that six thousand years ago, the cavemen found some faked fossils and tried to imagine how that animal might have looked like if it had actually existed.

Re:This just in!

[Anonymous Coward]

Indeed. 20k years from now people may believe an "Iron Man" or "Iron Men" lived among us.

Crayola

[Codename Dutchess]

I like how they claim they can use the crayon scribbles to tell the difference between an emu and this Genyomis.

From TFA:

"Initially, we thought it was another big emu," said consulting archaeologist Ben Gunn, a founding member of the Australian Rock Art Research Association who was documenting the Niwarla Gabarnmung site for the Jawoyn Association.

But then we figured, nah, its probably this big giant extinct bird instead...

An Australian flightless bird with strong legs

[Anonymous Coward]

It must be a surfin' bird!

Re:This just in!

[WrongSizeGlass]

Ancient art represents ancient reality, news at 11!

Actually this provides proof of prior art for Big Bird [wikipedia.org] and should invalidate all of Sesame Street's copyrights :-)

Oh Crap!

[zerospeaks]

The young earth creationist are going to claim this one as "evidence" for a young earth.

Re:Using the extinction to date the painting?

[Dragoniz3r]

You must be new here :)

Re:Crayola

[Shadow Wrought]

But what if the artist was the first Picasso?

Then it was probably a self-portait.

Re:Island or Continent.

[pipedwho]

Australia, an island off the coast of New Zealand.