Photos: 'Winged monster' rock art in Black Dragon Canyon

Creationists and researchers have long debated how to interpret the rock art adorning Black Dragon Canyon in Utah. The Fremont culture painted the rock art between A.D. 1 and 1100. Many creationists say the art looks like a winged monster, possibly a pterosaur. In contrast, many researchers say it's a collection of several distinct images of people and animals. A new study using cutting-edge techniques confirms that the artwork consists of several separate images, and is not a pterodactyl. [Read the Full Story on the Ancient Rock Art]

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A close-up photo of what some people deem to be the head, beak and neck of the pterosaur. In fact, the image is likely a supplicating person with his arms outstretched to the right, and his legs below him, the researchers said. (Image credit: Jean-Loïc Le Quellec, Paul Bahn and Marvin Rowe, "The death of a pterodactyl," Antiquity, Volume 89, p 872-884, 2015, Copyright Antiquity Publications Ltd., published by Cambridge University Press, reproduced with permission.)

After putting the same photo into DStretch, "it is very clear that the serpentiform on the right has been artificially joined to the other figures by the chalk line, visible here in blue," the researchers wrote in the study. (Image credit: Jean-Loïc Le Quellec, Paul Bahn and Marvin Rowe, "The death of a pterodactyl," Antiquity, Volume 89, p 872-884, 2015, Copyright Antiquity Publications Ltd., published by Cambridge University Press, reproduced with permission.)

"It's one of the worst things you can do, because it damages the art, it imposes what you think you can see on it, it messes up the chemistry of the rock, probably, and it just doesn't disappear," said co-lead researcher Paul Bahn, a freelance archaeologist. (Image credit: Jean-Loïc Le Quellec, Paul Bahn and Marvin Rowe, "The death of a pterodactyl," Antiquity, Volume 89, p 872-884, 2015, Copyright Antiquity Publications Ltd., published by Cambridge University Press, reproduced with permission.)

DStretch shows that the image is actually two four-legged animals. The animal on the left may be a sheep, and the animal on the right may be a dog, Bahn told Live Science. (Image credit: Jean-Loïc Le Quellec, Paul Bahn and Marvin Rowe, "The death of a pterodactyl," Antiquity, Volume 89, p 872-884, 2015, Copyright Antiquity Publications Ltd., published by Cambridge University Press, reproduced with permission.)

For instance, other paintings show bug-eyed people with round heads and elongated bodies who are surrounded by tiny attendants, such as small people and animals, the researchers said. (Image credit: Jean-Loïc Le Quellec, Paul Bahn and Marvin Rowe, "The death of a pterodactyl," Antiquity, Volume 89, p 872-884, 2015, Copyright Antiquity Publications Ltd., published by Cambridge University Press, reproduced with permission.)

Researcher Marvin Rowe stands on his tippy toes so he can use a portable mass spectrometer to examine the rock paintings. The spectrometer analyzed the elements found in the painting, and revealed where the paint was and where it wasn't. This confirmed that the rock art is several separate images, and not one big image of a pterosaur, the researchers said. (Image credit: Jean-Loïc Le Quellec, Paul Bahn and Marvin Rowe, "The death of a pterodactyl," Antiquity, Volume 89, p 872-884, 2015, Copyright Antiquity Publications Ltd., published by Cambridge University Press, reproduced with permission.)

Laura is the managing editor at Live Science. She also runs the archaeology section and the Life's Little Mysteries series. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Scholastic, Popular Science and Spectrum, a site on autism research. She has won multiple awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association for her reporting at a weekly newspaper near Seattle. Laura holds a bachelor's degree in English literature and psychology from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in science writing from NYU.