Printable Welcome Letter For Church New Member

Australian Rock Art: dated in 40,000 years?

archaeologists announced in the discovery last days (two years ago) of what could be the oldest examples of rock art of Australia. The design in red ocher, located in the interior of Arnhem Land, apparently shows two large flightless birds.

Fig.1. Benn Gunn picture, taken from 2010 MASTERS.

According to a design was inspired by the kind Genyornis, which includes giant birds that according to the fossil record (including egg shells) became extinct between 43,000 and 40,000 years ago.

Archaeologist Benn Gunn quotes a paleontologist, who was still anonymous at the time, that the character design are related giant bird, and who has realized the design was to have a living model. In the area are already known examples show that the prehistoric fauna of Australia, including animals determined as the thylacine, but also of questionable attribution as the marsupial lion, the giant echidna or the giant kangaroo.
The drawings can not be dated directly, since it does not consist of organic matter, so does the interpretation Animal shown is correct, there are two possible interpretations: the drawings date back at least 40,000 years ago, before the extinction of Genyornis , or drawings are more recent, is the kind unlike previously thought was extinct in less time recent.

This interpretation, however, is to consider very carefully the identification of animal paintings is very speculative, and if ever representations should be a real flora, fauna is not a religious or fantastic characters, the birds in question may have been inspired also by flightless birds, and smaller still Life In Australia, such as the common Emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae ).
It is also interesting to note that animals show a pattern of stripes. This may represent either natural design of birds, or, as seems to be a common feature in the drawings of aborigines, perhaps a religious symbol, denying the various reconstructions facts about these special marsupials extinct marsupial lion like for example.

Bibliography:

MASTERS, E. : Cave painting megafauna Could Be 40.000 years old. ABC News. Online 31. May 2010. Accessed 31/05/2010