Strange prehistoric drawings found near dinosaur footprints in Brazil

Prehistoric humans in Brazil carved drawings in the rock next to dinosaur footprints, suggesting they may have found them meaningful or interesting, a study found.

Prehistoric humans in Brazil carved drawings in the rock next to dinosaur footprints, suggesting that they may have found them meaningful or interesting, a new study has found. The rock carvings, which archaeologists call petroglyphs, are at a site called Serrote do Letreiro in Paraíba, an agricultural state on the eastern tip of Brazil. Researchers first observed the marks in 1975. But they are now interpreted as relating to the footprints following recent field surveys aided by drones, which uncovered previously unseen carvings. The tracks belong to dinosaurs from the Cretaceous Period, which ended 66 million years ago. “People usually think that Indigenous people weren’t aware of their surroundings or didn’t have any kind of scientific spirit or curiosity,” said study coauthor Leonardo Troiano, an archaeologist at the Institute of National Historic and Artistic Heritage in Brasilia. “But that’s not true. It’s very clear that they were interested in the footprints. We’ll never know if they knew about dinosaurs, but it is clear that they were curious about the prints and thought they were meaningful in some way.” The Serrote do Letreiro petroglyphs aren’t the first examples of rock art found close to dinosaur prints, but the authors of the study said they believe that the unprecedented clarity of the association between the two at this particular site could have significant implications across paleontology, archaeology and cultural heritage studies. It’s unclear how long ago the petroglyphs were made. But the study — published in March in the journal Scientific Reports — notes that radiocarbon dating has found burial sites in the area to be between 9,400 and 2,620 years old, suggesting the tribes that left them must have lived during that time. “These people were probably living in small communities, using natural rocky shelters that are very abundant in the area,” Troiano said.