The Independent => Fossils: myths, mystery and magic
Fresh on the heels of Primeval we have this interesting article concerning some of the misconceptions and folklore that sprung up about fossils before we lived in this enlightened age of reason. For example:
The fossil Protoceratops, which means “first horned faceâ€, was a sheep-sized herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous period (about 100 million years ago), that lived in what is now Mongolia. Protoceratops had a large neck-frill but, unlike later ceratopsians, lacked well-developed horns.
The folklore Fossilised skulls of this dinosaur with a bird-like beak have been unearthed in the Gobi desert, which is where the myth of the gold-guarding griffin originates – a ferocious beast with the body of a lion, the head and wings of an eagle and talons as big as bull-horns.
The griffin myth probably originated from the tales of Scythian gold miners who may have come across Protoceratops skulls on the edge of the Altai mountains, in what is now Siberia. The uncanny resemblance between these two creatures suggests that the fossilised skull and bones of the real dinosaur may have been the inspiration for the vivid descriptions of the mythological beast.
Nowadays, of course, we know better. It’s been decisively proven that fossils are just the remains of animals that God made too big to fit through the door of Noah’s Ark. Silly god, he never could measure to save his life.
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