The common held belief is that dinosaurs died out millions of years ago right?

That's what we thought until wandering the ruins of Ta Phrom and discovering hidden amongst the other carvings of Cambodian animals from 800 years ago was a - stegosaurus. Were dinosaurs roaming Cambodia 800 years ago? Noah and Hayley are now convinced they were.  

But lets rewind one hour to the start of our story

Our second day of visiting temples near Siem Reap was spent at Ta Phrom, made famous by the movie Tomb Raider and the decision of the restorers of the Ecole Francaise d-Extreme-Orient to leave the temple complex as it was found. Apart from preserving the structures that were still intact, clearing the compound and creating a pathway for visitors to explore, the ruins that you see are pretty much how they were. Half fallen down, gigantic trees with even more gigantic roots grasping onto structures and mossy overgrown paths.

You almost feel like you're the first people to come across the ruins hidden in the jungle.

Well at least you would if it wasn't for the wooden pathways, hundreds of tourists and cranes. All those three things really spoil the effect.

I was also disappointed to not find a little mystical Cambodian child chasing butterflies and giving me cryptic clues to hidden treasures - damn Hollywood!

Aside from that though it was a pretty fun ruin to visit with little kids. The pathways make it easy on toddler legs, while there's plenty of tree roots and broken stones for older kids to climb on. There are still a few areas of off-boardwalk areas to explore so you feel a little less like a tourist on a sightseeing trip. Being in the jungle its humid but not too sunny... always a plus with kids. The ruins themselves aren't as interesting or magnificent as many of the other temples but they're an easy, fun one to do with kids.

The trees overgrowing the ruins are amazing for the shear size of their root systems. Its easy to go camera crazy or loose yourself looking at them all.

Again we did this trip by ourselves without a tour guide, but from what we could overhear from other guides it looks like a place that it might be worth having a guide walking you through for 20mins before you explore by yourself. We overheard stories of concubine swimming pools, Kings follies and examples of the non-invasive restoration work that was being undertaken.

One part of every tour also takes you past the mysterious stegosaurus carving. We (by we I mean Aunty Sarah... great spotting skills!) luckily stumbled across it by ourselves, not even knowing it was there.

So back to our original question - did stegosaurus live in Cambodia 800 years ago?

The jury seems to be out on this. There's no fossil evidence to suggest they did live here recently but the soggy jungles of Cambodia aren't really the ideal conditions for fossilation so its doubtful there would be any fossil records even if they were around.

So what are the other options? Perhaps the original builders of Ta Phrom came across an intact ancient stegosaurus skeleton in the quarry that the stones used to build the temple were dug from. Unless it was wonderfully intact its not a likely scenario.

Perhaps it's a hoax added by one of the early French teams or a movie crew with a twisted sense of humour. Months upon months of staring at rocks and carvings in the jungle would probably do funny things to your brain, so it's possible its someones idea of a joke to future generations of tourists and scholars.

Modern experts are conflicted.

Some believe the carving style doesn't match typical Khmer sculptures and the stone is a lighter colour so may have been added recently. But others feel that the column containing the carving has not been tampered with, nor has the carving been altered in anyway and that the lighter colour is just erosion exposing a different rock layer.

The most logical explanation is that perhaps the carving isn't a stegosaurus at all. Perhaps a lizard like a chameleon with spikes on its back that the artist has exaggerated. Or it could be a rhinoceros or water buffalo standing in front of a tree or lotus leaves, a common motif in Khmer carvings that can be seen on the outside of the carving. If you look at a photo of an Indian Rhino and ignore the stegosaurus like plates than it's a pretty close depiction.

But of course it's more fun to believe that stegosaurus were wandering the jungles of Cambodia 800 years ago. 

There's even recent sightings in Papua New Guinea of similar animals, brontosaurus like animals rumored to be living in South America, pterosaurs in Texas, and depictions of humans and dinosaurs together in other carvings from the ancient world scattered across the planet.  So who's to say they weren't around 800 years ago. In fact, who's to say they're not still out there somewhere lurking behind a tree (can an animal the size of an elephant lurk???).

What ever the truth is, spotting the stegosaurus is a fun activity with kids, as well as helping them imagine that somewhere out there dinosaurs might still exist. This little guy right below the stegosaurus carving is pretty funny too... perhaps the carvers were fans of 'Where the Wild Things Are".

There's a pretty close likeness don't you think to the guy on the left ...