Mysterious symbols found near footprints shed light on ancient humans' awareness of dinosaurs, scientists say

[Judi Lynn]

By Jacopo Prisco, CNN
5 minute read
Updated 6:45 PM EDT, Thu April 11, 2024



Called petroglyphs, these carvings are in the shape of stars or circles with internal divisions on a rocky outcrop where sauropod dinosaur footprints are found at the Serrote do Letreiro site in the Brazilian state of Paraíba. Leonardo Troiano

CNN
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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.



A dashed line indicates petroglyphs made by indigenous people, while a continuous line shows theropod dinosaur footprints. Leonardo Troiano

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https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/11/americas/carved-drawings-dinosaur-footprints-paraiba-brazil-scn/index.html