Dinosaur of Ta Prohm

Since Ta Prohm is a popular site for film crews, it has also been suggested that the relief could be a modern hoax.

[3] Ta Prohm was constructed in the late 12th century under Jayavarman VII of the Khmer Empire and was dedicated in honor of his mother, Sri Jayarajacudamani, in 1186.

After the fall of the Khmer Empire in the 15th century, Ta Prohm and other temples were mostly left abandoned and neglected.

[2] The "dinosaur" relief first gained widespread recognition in modern times when its strange appearance was pointed out in a 1997 guidebook,[1][2] Angkor Cities and Temples by Michael Freeman and Claude Jacques.

[2] In their later 1999 book Ancient Angkor, Freeman and Jacques again highlighted the relief and referred to it as "a very convincing representation of a stegosaur".

[3] The animal depicted in the relief has a convex-shaped back, lined with a series of ornaments superficially reminiscent of the plates of stegosaurian dinosaurs.

[4] It is likely that these supposed plates are meant to be stylized lotus leaves or petals, which are also featured in nearby reliefs and throughout the temple's artwork, sometimes in a nearly identical manner.

[6] Conventional identifications of the animal depicted, taking into account the likelihood that the "plates" are stylized background foliage,[1][5] include a chameleon,[1][2] a mountain horned lizard,[2] a rhinoceros,[1][2][5] a water buffalo,[2] or a boar.

[2] A replica of the relief is exhibited at the Creation Evidence Museum of Texas,[1][2] where the conclusion that it represents a stegosaur is strongly encouraged.

These features correspond to rhinoceros anatomy and are very different from the long neck, pointed and narrow snout, and small heads of stegosaurs.