Supposed dragon pictograph refuted by x-ray technology

Science : Since the late 1920s, when a rock painting was discovered in Utah’s Black Dragon Canyon, people have been debating what exactly is depicted in the faded and ancient pictograph. Over the years it has variously been described as a winged monster, a dragon, or a pterodactyl. Rock art researchers and archaeologists, however, have said that rather than showing a single figure, the drawing depicts five figures—two humans and three animals. Such a tableau, they say, is common in the Barrier Canyon style of art seen in that region. To try to finally lay the controversy to rest, researchers used x-ray fluorescence to measure the iron content of the red ochre pigment used in the drawing and a software program called DStretch, which can boost and sharpen digital images. The two methods revealed “pretty clearly” that there are five figures, says Marvin Rowe, a retired professor emeritus at Texas A&M University in College Station and a coauthor of the study.