I was going to claim that the stegasaurus never existed but that was the triceratops. But the carving isn’t necessarily a stegasaurus, it may be a small reptile that went extinct during the Angkor Wat days, which isn’t that long ago. People back then were very busy building canals and reservoirs to double the growing season for rice to feed the ever increasing population. A lot of earth was moved, some land was drained and other places were flooded. I can see some animals going extinct.
But the most mysterious thing about the carving is that it is the only one. Something as awesome as a huge stegasaurus should have been in more artwork. And I would have expected it to be depicted in Indian or Chinese art even if the animal lived only in the Khmer region. Very strange.
Agree.