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"What are we to make of the carving of a Stegosaur (Stegosaur stenops) on an ancient Cambodian temple at Angkor Wat?"

What if it's really nothing?

As was suggested in the article,
"Did the prop crew of the Laura Croft movie pull off a prank, and restore the temple, placing onto this wall a dinosaur facade?" It also suggests this is a newer panel.

Maybe, it was:

* a band of alcolytes making fun of the dean of the temple.
Perhaps they were gathered together giggling as Ly "Stinky" Meang drew it on a dare, and it is their way of saying "The dean is a big, fat monster."

* an ancient Khmer soldier leaving the equivalent of "Kilroy was here" on the temple wall.

* maybe this was a Cambodian equivalent of a comic book (I refuse to call it a graphic novel," and the children of the area gathered together every day to see the installment of the adventures of Big Animal Man.

* perhaps an ancient Cambodian science fiction novel-of-the-month.

* maybe the work of a Cambodian artist who really needed glasses to draw an elephant.

* perhaps the wine-tasting for the opening of the new temple art gallery was proceded by a LOT of wine tasting by the artists.

* maybe it was a gang of artists who wanted to found a new kind of animated art who discovered it was WAY too much trouble and only drew the first equivalent of a Cambodian cel.

* maybe it's an elephant drawn by a bitter Cambodia Democrat who lost ANOTHER election.

One the other hand, there are those who believe the earth is relatively young and this really represents a steosaur-like animal.