Did man live with dinosaurs?
From the Stones of Ica to the mosaic of Palestrina, from the Sumerian, Egyptian and Pre-Columbian artefacts to the Mokele-Mbembe: there are too many testimonies of prehistoric reptiles from the Ancients. But were dinosaurs really extinct?
Paleontology dates the existence of dinosaurs to around 230 million years ago, during the Mesozoic Era, suggesting that the first large reptiles appeared as early as the Triassic period. However, some paleontologists propose that the earliest reptiles, such as the species Hylonomus, may have appeared in the Carboniferous period, 315 million years ago. Undoubtedly, these giants belong to a very remote past in Earth's history, and pinpointing the exact time of their first appearance remains a mystery. Another enigma that continues to divide many scientists globally is the question of their extinction. Several hypotheses exist regarding this issue: one of the most well-known is the theory of a meteorite impact on our planet that caused their extinction. Other theories include the explosion of a supernova whose radiation reached Earth and killed all the large existing reptiles, global cooling leading to an Ice Age, or natural evolution where smaller mammals replaced the large reptiles.
However, what interests us at the moment is a different question that researchers, particularly the more observant and unorthodox ones, have been asking in recent years: is it possible that humans coexisted with dinosaurs? This question might seem rather bold to official paleontology, but recent archaeological findings suggest that the coexistence of dinosaurs and humans might find an extraordinary and sensational confirmation. The first paleontologists date back to the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The first fossilized dinosaur skeleton was found in the Netherlands, specifically at Pietersberg near Maastricht. Some workers, performing routine tasks, accidentally unearthed the enormous bones. Unsure of whom to contact, they decided to call Dr. Hoffmann, a surgeon and shell researcher. He immediately recognized the significance of the discovery—a complete fossilized skeleton of a giant reptile—and promptly ordered a halt to all activities to recover the fossil.
The extracted animal was a Mosasaur, an aquatic dinosaur from the period between the Carboniferous and the Permian. Following this, other fossil reptiles were found across Europe, including one discovered by chance by a young girl named Mary Anning, who became famous among paleontologists for her numerous discoveries along the cliffs of Great Britain. This was the second dinosaur skeleton ever found, an eight-meter-long aquatic animal known as an Ichthyosaur. These early discoveries marked the birth of Paleontology. The first paleontologist to use the term "Dinosaur" was the Englishman Richard Owen. A few years later, in 1812, the first works of the French scientist Georges Cuvier were published, including "Investigations on the Skeletons of Fossil Remains," "Natural History of Fish," and "History of Natural Sciences."
According to paleontology, these large reptiles went extinct 65 million years ago, while humans appeared about a million years ago, implying that humans and dinosaurs never coexisted. Recently, however, this theory has begun to be challenged due to the discovery of prehistoric findings around the world that suggest the coexistence of humans and dinosaurs. Among the numerous rock paintings discovered by archaeologists, several depict these enormous reptiles. For instance, in the caves of Bernifal in France, scientist Jack Cuozzo found some Neanderthal artifacts and a cave painting showing a dinosaur confronting a mammoth. Although startling photos of the cave painting were set to be published, the matter was hushed up, and the cave was closed to the public.
In the United States, a curious glyph in the Wupatki National Park depicts a strange fire-breathing reptile resembling the dragons of the Middle Ages, known as "Puff the Magic Dragon." The exact age of the drawing is unknown, but archaeologists estimate it to be several thousand years old. Evidence of ancient knowledge of dinosaurs can also be found in Babylonian bas-reliefs, such as the strange animals reminiscent of large reptiles depicted on the Ishtar Gate from 600 BCE.
The Ethnographic Museum of Budapest houses an ancient Indonesian painting from Sumatra, showing figures of men hunting long-necked, long-tailed animals with crests on their heads, closely resembling Corythosaurs. Similarly, among the Anasazi Indians, paintings have been found depicting animals similar to dinosaurs, such as what appears to be an Apatosaurus, dated to 150 CE. Another similar drawing was discovered in Arizona by Dr. De Lancy in the Havasupai Canyon. In Australia, Aboriginal stories tell of ancient reptiles hunted by their ancestors, illustrated by a painting of a Plesiosaur surrounded by men attempting to capture it.
Among the most striking historical evidence is the Mesopotamian bas-relief depicted on a terracotta cylinder dated to 3300 BCE, which shows animals that appear to be Apatosaurus-like creatures with their long necks intertwined. Even more surprising is that similar scenes are found in Egypt on the famous "Narmer Palette" discovered in Hierakonpolis, which depicts two similar long-necked animals with their necks crossed. Another artifact from the Predynastic period, found in 2003 at the archaeological site of Manshaat Ezzat near Sinbellawein and published by National Geographic, shows strong similarities to the Narmer artifact. Additionally, a Roman mosaic from 200 CE features a similar scene.
In Cambodia, the famous Stegosaurus sculpted among the bas-reliefs of the Khmer Temple of Angkor Wat has been quickly dismissed as a fake by archaeologists, though the reason for this remains unclear. Today, in Palestrina near Rome, one can admire the famous Hellenistic "Nile Mosaic," which depicts a beautiful scene of men hunting large dinosaur-like animals on the banks of the Nile River in Egypt.
Many other ancient paintings also feature these magnificent animals. Archeology has also provided numerous sculptures of "monsters" resembling dragons or saurians throughout human history. One such sculpture was found in Calabria (Italy), in Girifalco, and appears to be a Stegosaurus. A similar artifact was discovered in Peru in 1930 in a Nazca tomb from 700 CE, showing a saurian-like creature with a crest along its body, painted on a red cup. Additionally, in 1945, in Acambaro, Mexico, sculptures of crested reptiles from the Chupicuaro culture, dating from 800 BCE to 200 CE, were found. In 1954, the Mexican government sent a team of researchers to investigate the authenticity of the collection of statuettes.
The authenticity of ancient artifacts has been much debated, and the Ica Stones found near the city of Ica in Peru are a significant point of contention. These now-famous stones are the subject of dispute between academic archaeologists and unorthodox archaeologists due to the scenes depicted on them. These objects could potentially be evidence that evolved humans existed in the Mesozoic era and had reached a high level of technological knowledge. The stones were given to archaeologist Javier Cabrera in May 1966 by his childhood friend Felix Llosa Romero, after being accidentally discovered in 1961 following the flooding of the Ica River. The stones were likely in an ancient cavity and transported due to the flood.
The controversial drawings on the stones depict scenes of humans alongside dinosaurs, and these humans are shown using advanced technologies. Individuals are seen riding various species of dinosaurs, such as Stegosaurus, Apatosaurus, Triceratops, and others. Strange animals, like five-toed horses and mammoths, as well as other extinct creatures, are also depicted. Some stones even illustrate the life cycle of a Stegosaurus differently from what current paleontology teaches; instead of hatching fully formed from eggs, the stones show tadpoles emerging, suggesting that these dinosaurs reproduced like amphibians. Other scenes show humans domesticating dinosaurs, and even more strikingly, some individuals are depicted observing dinosaurs through telescopes while riding mechanical flying birds resembling airplanes, and using ray guns that emit disintegrating beams.
The reason for the disagreement between archaeologists and researchers like Cabrera is this: mainstream paleontology considers these artifacts to be blatant fakes for two main reasons. First, according to paleontology, it is impossible for humans and dinosaurs to have coexisted since dinosaurs are believed to have gone extinct 63 million years before humans appeared. Second, the technologies depicted on the stones appear too "science fiction-like" to be credible; it is unthinkable to mainstream scientists that a civilization of intelligent, evolved beings existed millions of years ago.
In 1973, the Lima-based magazine "Mundial" claimed that the Ica Stones were fakes, attributing them to two farmers, Irma Gutierrez and Basilio Uchuya, who admitted to personally engraving the stones to make money by selling them to tourists. The problem is that the two farmers were illiterate; so how could they have known the anatomy of various dinosaurs, scientific knowledge about heart transplants depicted on the stones, cranial trepanation, technological objects, aeronautical knowledge, and laser guns? Moreover, around twenty thousand stones have been found, all made of polished andesite, a granite-origin stone, varying in size from 10 to 50 cm, and intricately engraved. How could two people have extracted twenty thousand granite pieces, polished the very hard material, and engraved it with just their hands? Such a task would require modern machinery for polishing and diamond-tipped drills. With such a vast quantity of stones, the entire village would have had to be involved. And the idea of ray guns would have been inconceivable to the farmers of that era.
When the farmers were asked to engrave other stones, the tools they used could not replicate the quality of the original carvings, and the new drawings were not comparable in content to the originals. It is likely that the two farmers lied to avoid trouble with the authorities, as selling such valuable ancient objects would have been prohibited, and they feared severe penalties from the police.
These are just some examples of historical and archaeological evidence, some of which are considered false, while many others are deemed authentic even by scientists, though often kept hidden. The fact that dinosaurs existed millions of years ago doesn't mean that evolved human beings couldn't have existed at the same time. Science has often had to reconsider its positions in light of new discoveries, and perhaps with all this evidence, the history of human evolution could be rewritten.
But what if dinosaurs, instead of becoming completely extinct, actually survived until recent historical times or even to the present day? How could the creators of ancient graffiti, mosaics, or artifacts have known the appearance of dinosaurs if paleontology only began in the 1800s? Even in the Middle Ages, how did the myth of the dragon, as seen in China, originate? In our opinion, there are two possibilities: either humans are much older than previously believed, or a few species of dinosaurs survived through the centuries until they encountered humans. Probably both theories are correct, in the sense that humans may have appeared on Earth millions of years ago, perhaps shortly after the great reptiles, and have coexisted with the few remaining animals from prehistory to today.
Perhaps the most credible testimony is the Mokele-Mbembe in Central Africa, which terrifies the Pygmies. Certainly, many "monsters" from the past have undergone long evolution, like the crocodile, which has only become smaller, or the elephant, a smaller version of the Mammoth or even earlier, the Barosaurus. But maybe others have survived with only minimal changes to their appearance, as is thought to be the case with the Loch Ness Monster. Today, science claims that this is purely mythology and that it's absolutely impossible for a Plesiosaur to have survived to the present day. True, but what if the Loch Ness Monster is actually a descendant of the Basilosaurus, a type of elongated whale that lives in the northern seas and comes into the lake once a year to lay eggs and feed on salmon before returning to the open sea? This is what the locals, in the nearby town of Inverness, have always hypothesized, especially since the lake is home to the world's fastest salmon, as if they are used to escaping from a dangerous predator!
In any case, with all the prehistoric clues emerging, serious investigation is needed into the possible coexistence of humans and dinosaurs. And if the Ica Stones truly tell the story of our planet, then who were those evolved humans interacting with the great reptiles? Perhaps another race, maybe from elsewhere, before our primitive ancestors? Perhaps it was these beings who caused the death of some of these animals by shooting them, as evidenced by a dinosaur skull found with a bullet hole in its forehead! We conclude this mystery with a question from the famous book "Not of This Earth" by Peter Kolosimo: who was shooting at the dinosaurs?
