Did The South American Gomphothere Survive Until The 19th Century?

[Nosmo King]

Possibly. Just as European werewolf legends may be partially remembered ancestral encounters with megafaunal canids, or dragons could be faintly recalled encounters with, well who knows? (I'll leave that one for lordmongrove).

8,000 years is an awful long time to pass down fairly detailed descriptions of such creatures though and I still quite like the possibility of a bold Mayan mahout riding a domesticated gomphothere, being depicted some 1,500 years ago.

Could be they were inspired by ancient cave paintings?