Ta Prohm Stegosaurus Carving

3D Model

This is a carving found in the Ta Prohm temple in Cambodia that bears a striking resemblance to a Stegosaurus type dinosaur. Ta Prohm temple was built about the late 12th and early 13th centuries (1186) by King Jayavarman VII.

This naturally brings up the question, “How would an artist only a thousand years ago know what a stegosaurus looked like, unless he had seen one alive or was told what it looked like by someone else who had seen one alive?”

All over the world we find petroglyphs, pottery, paintings, tapestries, mosaics, and figurines of creatures that look strikingly like dinosaurs. We also find ancient stories from all over the world of humans interacting with giant reptilian creatures that sound very much like dinosaurs. Where did all these stories and artwork come from? Could it be that dinosaurs were still alive only a few centuries ago and humans still encountered them occassionally?

Ongoing research is searching for the answers!

(www.vrbm.org)