The painting was made by the San people at least two hundred years ago. It depicts a tusked animal that resembles a dicynodont, a creature that went extinct about 250 million years ago and whose fossils are found in the region, according to Julien Benoit, a researcher at the University of the Witwatersrand.
The painting's connection to a San myth about extinct large animals that once roamed southern Africa suggests a deep-rooted indigenous knowledge of paleontology.
Notably, the painting predates the official scientific description of the dicynodont by at least ten years. This suggests that the San may have incorporated fossils into their belief system long before formal scientific recognition. This discovery provides evidence of indigenous paleontology and highlights the potential for valuable historical and cultural insights to be gained from traditional knowledge systems.