Dinosaurs in Literature, Art & History... Page 15
Dinosaurs in Literature, Art & History... Page 15

Toxodon Depicted on Pre-Columbian,Lambayeque (Peruvian) Whistling Bottle?

Guy:"Excuse me sir, can you tell me something about this piece?"

Museum Guy: "Certainly sir". Like it says on the card, this is an exquisite example of a double-chambered figural bridge-spout whistling bottle of the Lambayeque Culture. It's a moulded whistling vessel, the front is a square section and is surmounted by an animal , possibly being marked by two attendants, the back body is moulded in the form of a shell with --as you can see a tall tapering spout and a wide strap handle.

The whole item is painted in black, cream and reddish-brown, with areas of scroll, circular and geometric patterns. It's from the Middle Horizon period, AD 100-300, again of the Lambayeque culture of Peru." It's nearly two thousand years old.

Guy: "Oh! Sorry. There is information right here on the card, which you just read verbatim, but frankly, we thought you looked kinda bored, anyways" Heh Heh..

Museum Guy: "Well, sir, you were quite right in thinking that an opportunity for me to read out loud what is written right there below the object in plain sight--would perk me right up.!"

Guy: "Hey! Are you being sarcastic?"

Museum Guy: "Apparently not, sir, or at least not to good effect."

Guy: "O.K. then. Sir, can you tell me what the animal is that is being attended? By the way, is that good "effect" or good "affect"?

Museum Guy: "Yes, I can. That is a llama!" I'm ignoring your other very charming question.

Guy: "A llama!?" (frowning)" Are you sure that it's not a Toxodon?"

Museum Guy:"Sir, perhaps if you understood that Toxodons had been extinct for many thousands if not millions of years before this piece was even cast, you wouldn't have made that suggestion. This artist could never have seen one of those alive.

Take my word for it as an expert on Pre-Columbian art; remember, the artists of that period often exaggerated certain characteristics of their subjects."

Guy: "Oh! Because you know, the Toxodon was native to South America. And do you notice the rounded front "mouthal area"? Toxodon means curved or bowed teeth--see like this guy has--almost like a beak. How long has the llama been extinct?"

Museum Guy :"Mouthal area", sir? This is Toronto and you do hear a variety of languages and slang speech, but I'm not familiar with that term; perhaps it is some obscure scientific nomenclature?. And I assure you that the llama is not extinct!"

Guy: "It's just that you'd think this guy had never seen one of those either"!

........The foregoing was a Dramatization. Thank you! Yes, we'll keep the day job. Fries with that?

Here at we've found that you can't always go by what's written on the placard or by what the experts say. (The placard identifies the animal as a llama.)When we viewed this piece, we thought the animal depicted was a very real one, but that it probably wasn't a llama. Because of the external ears, we thought that it probably wasn't a reptile.


We went on the net and searched for extinct mammals from South America. Immediately, Toxodon popped up. It had the right size, it had the beaked mouth and of course was native geographically exactly where the artist lived. A second candidate was the Coryphodon shown at the bottom of the page.

The ears on the modern interpretation of the Toxodon are smaller than the one on the piece but remember, the modern versions were drawn from skeletal remains while the artists's piece was done from life!

There have been numerous other discoveries of anomalies related to the toxodon, including an arrow or spear found in the thigh bone of one such animal.

Toxodon is a genus of mammals, now extinct, that lived in the late Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs in South America. Toxodon fossils were studied by Charles Darwin on his voyage on the Beagle....Wikipedia

"The Toxodon lived in South America during the Pleistocene about 50 million years ago"..Source 1

TOXODONTIA, a sub-order of extinct South American Tertiary ungulate mammals typified by the genus Toxodon, so named from the bow-like curvature of the molar teeth.

They all show signs of distant kinship to the Perissodactyla, as regards both limb-structure and dentition; while some exhibit resemblance to the Rodents and Hyraxesresemblances which, however, are probably to be attributed to parallelism in development.

Under the sub-order Toxodontia may be included not only the typical Toxodon, but the more aberrant Typotherium of the Pleistocene of Buenos Aires and the smaller Pachymcus and Hegeto-therium of the Patagonian Santa Cruz beds.

represented by animals the size of a rhinoceros, of which TOY, C. H.." LoveToKnow 1911 Online Encyclopedia. © 2003, 2004 LoveToKnow."


When Charles Darwin visited South America in the decade of 1830, he found rest fossil of several strange animals, among them the Toxodon . Darwin wrote '


"Now we know that the Toxodon , like other herbívoros of South America, was not nearly related with any of the groups known mammals of other parts of the world. Toxodontes have been related to forms as the Notostylops that arose 50 million years years ago.

The Toxodon was one of last and the greatest of them. It's head was very similar to th one of the rhino, and it is very probable that the Toxodon ate grass that was cut with their incisors and crushed with molars. It was an enormous and slow animal.

Archaeological Finds Relevant To Cryptozoology

"One science that cryptozoology interacts with on several occasions is archaeology. Several artifacts suggest that animals presumed extinct or unknown were encountered by ancient cultures, one famous example being the chariot ring found at Kish.

Dated to around 2,500 BC it has been suggested that this artifact represents a late surviving Sivatherium (an animal related to both the giraffe and the okapi, which had antler-like structures and is presumed extinct before the age in which the artifact was made) that was tame and kept captive.


Since this artifact had been discovered, it has been announced that broken off pieces of the ends of the supposed antler-like structures have been found and has been used as evidence that the artifact represents a deer but this does not explain certain other features of the artifact or that other artifacts seem to depict similar animals.

Archaeological finds from other regions depict animals thought extinct. These include bronze artifacts from the Warring States period of Shanxi Province that depict animals resembling the hyrax but with features suggesting a semi-aquatic lifestyle, suggesting that the animals depicted are the large, semi-aquatic Pliohyrax which once inhabited the region.

Two gold belt plaques of the Sakik of Siberia, 12 cm long by 7.4 cm wide and 137 g in wieght depict what look similar to a supposedly extinct chalicothere, an animal related to the horse but with large claws .

At Tiahuanaco in Bolivia, is represented several times an animal that has been identified as Toxodon, an animal resembling the hippopotamus and thought to have become extinct thousands of years before.

Other animals thought to have died out in the region at this time have been suggested to be depicted at Tiahuanaco around 1,500 years ago....Cryptozoology

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