EXTINCT PREHISTORIC GIRAFFES PICTURED IN NINE-MILE CANYON, UTAH:

 

 

Mile-36, 9-Mile Canyon, Utah. Photograph:

Peter Faris, August 1993. The arrows point

to the images in question #1 and #2.

Petroglyphs of Aepycamelus, an extinct giraffe/camel relative have been identified in Nine-Mile Canyon, Utah. The creature lived during the Miocene epoch, between 23 and 5.3 million years ago.

 

 

Long-necked quadruped #1 in upper left.

Mile-36, 9-Mile Canyon, Utah. Photograph:

Peter Faris, August 1993.

 

Long-necked quadruped #2 on left side.

Mile-36, 9-Mile Canyon, Utah. Photograph:

Peter Faris, August 1993.

 

“Aepycamelus was a prairie dweller of North America (Colorado, etc.). It was a highly specialized animal. Its head was relatively small compared with the rest of its body, its neck was long, as a result of giraffe-like lengthening of the cervical vertebrae, and its legs were long and stilt-like, with the elbow and knee joints on the same level. The top of its head would have been about 3 meters (9.8 ft) above the ground“. (Wikipedia)

 

Aepycamelus, formerly called Alticamelus,

Wikipedia

 

 

Aepycamelus, formerly called Alticamelus,

Wikipedia

“Its strange body structure gives us plenty of information on its mode of life and habits. Aepycamelus obviously inhabited dry grasslands with groups of trees. It is presumed to have moved about singly or in small groups, like today's giraffes, and like them, browsed high up in the trees. In this respect it had no competitors. It survived a relatively long time, through most of the Miocene epoch, and died out prior to the start of the Pliocene, possibly due to climatic changes.” (Wikipedia)

The Miocene epoch covered the period of roughly 23 to 5.3 million years ago. So, could there have possibly been a rock artist back in the Miocene who carved these images of Aepycamelus at that time? Perhaps there was a relic population of Aepycamelus that lasted longer in northeastern Utah, until the great extinction of North American megafauna at the end of the Pleistocene period 13,000 years ago. How else can we explain these pictures?

 

Well, we could explain them by pointing to the fact that it is April 1^st – APRIL FOOL’S DAY!

(NOTE: The rock art is real, it is the explanation that is bogus.)

SOURCE:  Wikipedia