Scientists debunk creationists’ claim that dinos and humans co-existed
March 28th, 2011 - 5:32 pm ICT by ANILondon, Mar 28 (ANI): An ancient cave drawing high on a rock formation in Utah has ignited a firestorm between creationists and scientists.
Creationists are claiming the famous dinosaur petroglyph at the Kachina Bridge formation in Natural Bridges Natural Monument in south-eastern Utah is proof that dinosaurs and humans co-existed.
But a new research paper is stirring up the controversy with the claim that the petroglyph is in fact a drawing of a snake. The ‘legs’ of the dinosaur are nothing more than mud stains.
Co-author Phil Senter, a biology professor at Fayetteville State University, hiked the region with his fiancee in 2009 - and came upon the famous image.
“I couldn’t believe it. It looked just like a sauropod,” he told Discovery News.
Curious, he contacted archaeologist Sally Cole, considered an expert in petrogylphs.
Cole examined the drawing and came to the conclusion that it was actually a composite of two separate drawings.
One is a snake or a serpent. The ‘legs’ of the ‘dinosaur’, she said, were actually just stains from minerals or mud.
Officials at the Creationist Museum, one of several creationist organisations featuring the petroglyph, quickly criticised the report and Cole.
David Menton, a biologist at the museum, said that Cole’s findings had to be disregarded as she examined the petroglyph from a distance with binoculars - not close up.
The article is published in Palaeontologia Electronica. (ANI)
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