The credit for discovering the first dinosaur bones is usually given to an English gentleman who discovered them in England between the 17th and 19th centuries. British natural historian Robert Plott first described dinosaur bones in his 1676 book. Oxfordshire natural history. Paleontologists from the University of the Witwatersrand and Nelson Mandela University have presented evidence that the first dinosaur bones may have been discovered in Africa as much as 500 years before Plott's discovery.

Humans were born in Africa. homo sapiens It has existed for at least 300,000 years.

And this continent is home to a wide variety of rock outcrops, including the Kem Kem Formation in Morocco, the Fayum Depression in Egypt, the Rift Valley in eastern Africa, and the Karoo in southern Africa, which contain fossils that were always accessible to our ancestors. I am.

So it's not just that Africans were likely the first to discover fossils. It was inevitable.

In many cases, the first dinosaur fossils claimed to have been discovered by scientists were actually brought to our attention by local guides.

An example is the discovery of giant dinosaurs. jobaria By the Tuareg people of Niger Giraffatitan By the Mwera people of Tanzania.

our paperPublished in Geological Society, London, Special Publicationreviews what is known about African indigenous fossil knowledge.

We enumerate fossils that may have been known since ancient times at various sites in Africa and discuss how they were used and interpreted by African communities before the science of paleontology was born. .

Massospondylus carinatus. Image credit: Nobu Tamura, http://spinops.blogspot.com / Patty Jansen / Sci.News.

Borara Rock Shelter in Lesotho

One of the highlights of our paper is the ruins of Borara, a Late Stone Age rock shelter in Lesotho.

Various dating techniques indicate that the site was inhabited by the Khesan and Basotho peoples from the 12th to 18th centuries (1100-1700 AD).

The shelter itself is surrounded by hills formed by compacted sediments deposited under harsh deserts like the Sahara some 180 to 200 million years ago, when the first dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Masu.

This region of Lesotho is particularly well known for its deliveries. Massospondylus carinatusa dinosaur with a body length of 4 to 6 meters, a small head and a long neck.

Fossilized bones of this kind are abundant in this area and were already the case when this place was occupied by people in the Middle Ages.

In 1990, archaeologists working in Bolarla discovered a human finger bone. Massospondylus He was being carried into a cave.

There are no fossilized skeletons protruding from the cave walls. So the only possibility that this phalanx ended up there is that someone picked it up in the distant past and carried it to a cave.

Perhaps this person did it out of simple curiosity, or to turn it into a pendant or toy, or to use it in a traditional healing ritual.

After heavy rains, it is not uncommon for people in the area to discover bones of extinct species that have been washed away from the host rock.

They usually recognize them as belonging to dragon-like monsters that swallow humans and even entire houses.

In Lesotho, the Basotho people call the monster “Holmormo,'' and in the Eastern Cape, which borders South Africa, the Xhosa people call it “Amagongonko.''

The exact date on which the phalanx was collected and transported has unfortunately been lost to time.

Given current knowledge, the period of occupation of the shelter could be between the 12th and 18th centuries.

This leaves open the possibility that the dinosaur bones were collected up to 500 years before Plott's discovery.

Early knowledge about extinct organisms

Most people have known about fossils long before the age of science, as far back as society's collective memory can go.

For example, in Algeria, people referred to some dinosaur footprints as belonging to the legendary “rock bird”.

In North America, cave paintings depicting dinosaur footprints were painted by the Anasazi people between 1000 and 1200 AD.

Indigenous Australians have identified dinosaur footprints as those of the legendary 'Emuman'.

In the south, the infamous conquistador Hernán Cortés was gifted a fossil mastodon femur by the Aztecs in 1519.

In Asia, Hindus have worshiped ammonites (coiled fossil shells), which they call “shaligrams,” for more than 2,000 years.

Claim credit

The fact that African people have known about fossils since ancient times is clear from folklore and the archaeological record, but there is still much to learn about them.

For example, unlike peoples in Europe, the Americas, and Asia, indigenous African paleontologists appear to have little use of fossils in traditional medicine.

We do not yet know whether this is a truly unique cultural feature common to most African cultures, or whether it is due to our admittedly still incomplete knowledge.

Also, some fairly prominent fossil sites, such as Morocco's Kem Kem Formation and South Africa's UNESCO World Heritage Cradle of Man caves, do not yet provide solid evidence of indigenous knowledge.

This is unfortunate, as fossil-related traditions can help bridge the gap between local communities and paleontologists, thereby contributing to the preservation of important heritage sites.

By investigating the paleontology of Africa's indigenous peoples, our team brings together the pieces of a forgotten past and serves local communities.

We hope this will inspire a new generation of local paleoscientists to follow in the footsteps of Africa's first fossil hunters.

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julian benoit other. 2024. Paleontological knowledge of African indigenous peoples. Geological Society, London, Special Publication 543; doi: 10.1144/SP543-2022-236

author: julian benoita paleontologist at the University of the Witwatersrand.

cameron penn clarka paleontologist at the University of the Witwatersrand.

charles helma paleontologist at Nelson Mandela University.

This article was first published conversation.