Ouch! Your Daily Dinosaur: Costa Rican “Dragon Of Death”,  Man/Dinosaur Inner-Action

What happens when a couple of guys find out that dinosaurs actually did not go extinct 65 million years ago? (Although technically pterosaurs are not considered dinosaurs they were also supposed to go extinct around 65 million years ago0

What happens? Dinosaurs and man inner-act when men end up in the diet of a dinosaur-or with God’s grace, maybe the other way around. This stone “flying metate” from Costa Rica depicts an encounter with a very large pterosaur, perhaps an Azhdarchid pterosaur like Thanatosdrakon amaru, the “dragon of death”. 

Dragon of Death

 “Researchers have named the largest pterosaur found to date in South America. The giant Thanatosdrakon (T. amaru) is estimated to have had a wingspan of around nine metres and it would have stood as tall as a giraffe.

Writing in the academic journal “Cretaceous Research”, the scientists, have assigned Thanatosdrakon to the Azhdarchidae family of pterosaurs and postulate that it was closely related to the slightly larger and geologically younger Quetzalcoatlus, fossils of which are known from North America.

This large pterosaur probably hunted on the ground, perhaps stalking prey in a similar manner to the marabou stork (Leptoptilos crumenifer) which is found in sub-Saharan Africa. The genus name is derived from the Greek words thanatos which means death and drakon (dragon). The species name honours the Inca winged serpent (Amaru).” Source: The Guardian, Wednesday May 28, 2008

So, running into one of these giant, flying reptiles could have made for a bad day, possibly as memorialized in this stone, “flying metate” from the Museo Nacional, San José, Costa Rica.

Costa Rican Flying Stone Metate, A.D. 1-500

 The most complex type of ceremonial metate is the class referred to as “flying-panel” metate. This style comes from the Atlantic watershed region, including the City of Guayabo and represents a high level of craftsmanship and complexity.

 Carved from a single piece of stone, these metates typically contain multiple figures, both underneath the plate and on the legs.

 Trophy heads, birds, jaguar, monkey and saurian figures are the most common themes. The “flying panel” metate is believed to be the precursor to free standing sculptural figures more common later in the Atlantic watershed region. Wikipedia

 “Metates, tablelike objects of stone used in ancient Mesoamerica for the grinding of foodstuffs such as corn, underwent particular elaboration in Central America, where they took on special meanings as well as unusual sculptural forms.”

The 'unique and most spectacular' type of stone sculpture from Costa Rica are the flying-panel metates of the Central Highland/Atlantic watershed region. They exhibit virtuoso carving which transformed large volcanic blocks into openwork sculptures of dynamic figural and zoomorphic forms. Possibly used as altars or thrones, the slightly curved platforms most likely functioned as tables for the preparation of ceremonial food or hallucinogens, and are supported on a theater of active figures.”  Metropolitan Museum

Looks like a possible encounter or the possibility of an encounter is here memorialized in stone. As the Museum stated, often saurian figures are represented, We have also included another metate of interest, Ancient stone frying metates could be  fruitful areas of research for creationists and cryptozoologists. I have found them to be so.

Who are you going to believe Science or your own “lying eyes”? s8intcom

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