I thought this was an innovative approach, if a trifle chancy, to identifying ancient animal populations. NewScientist (10 February 2018, paywall) reports:
Art carved into rock by prehistoric people can tell us a lot about the places they lived. Now rock engravings in north-west Saudi Arabia suggest that the region was once home to a host of unexpected animals. …
To find out, Maria Guagnin at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany, and her colleagues studied rock art at Jubbah and Shuwaymis, a joint UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The team examined more than 1400 rock engraving panels, some dating back to 8000 BC. The pictures contain around 6600 depictions of wildlife. The team could identify the exact species shown.
Some of the art showed animals that have never been seen in the local archaeological record. For example, antelope called lesser kudu appeared in the engravings, given away by their distinctive spiral horns. Before now, there was little evidence that they ever left Africa.
Of course, this is, in a way, a secondary source – to be viewed with some skepticism by the wise scholar. But I like it! And it suggests that another current-desert was once quite a different landscape.
