Fossils As Monsters

sci:geo:fossils_as_monsters

The bones of long-dead creatures, weathering out of the rock, were read by the ancients as the remains of giants, dragons, and monsters. The griffin may be born from the beaked, four-legged skeletons of Protoceratops in the gold-bearing deserts of the East; the one-eyed Cyclops from the great central nasal cavity of dwarf-elephant skulls in Mediterranean caves; and China's 'dragon bones', ground for medicine, are the fossils of dinosaurs and ancient beasts. — earth science / folklore