Were These Monsters Inspired by Fossils? (w/ Monstrum!)

Around the year 1335, a mysterious skull was recovered from a local quarry near the city of Klagenfurt, Austria... and it looked downright monstrous. For one thing, it was much larger than a human skull. And it had big teeth, a long snout, and some top-notch nostrils. This strange skull was displayed in the Klagenfurt City Hall, where it remained for hundreds of years. And then, at the end of the 16th century, the skull was immortalized. The artist Urlich Vogelsang used this specimen as a reference for a colossal sculpture of a dragon. The stone beast was completed in 1590 and is estimated to weigh six metric tons!

But the skull that had captured the artist's imagination did not come from a fire-breathing reptile. It came from a rhinoceros. A woolly rhino, to be precise. That's right, in 1840, a paleontologist confirmed that the fossilized skull belonged to an ice age mammal called Coelodonta antiquitatis, also known as the woolly rhinoceros, which we've talked about before. The woolly rhinoceros, a large herbivore with a thick shaggy coat, lived in Eurasia just 12,000 years ago. And although Vogelsang got the anatomical details wrong, his sculpture is historically significant. Because it is a first attempt to reconstruct the appearance of a long-extinct animal: a kind of visual storytelling.

Today we would call it "paleoart." People have been discovering footprints and remains of prehistoric creatures for thousands of years. And they've probably also been telling stories about fantastic beasts since language emerged. So is it possible that the

monsters

that populate our myths and legends were influenced by the fossil record? Today, we address that question with a little help from Dr. Emily Zarka in our PBS Digital series, Monstrum. Don't worry, there is nothing to fear. It's just science. And

monsters

. Now, we should point out that that dragon statue that was

inspired

by the rhino skull is quite rare.

Not only are historians confident that it was based on a specific fossil, but scientists still have access to that fossil. We generally lack that kind of evidence. Stories and works of art tend to have complicated origins and multiple sources of inspiration. So most of the time, when we try to figure out how

fossils

might have influenced mythical monsters, all we can do is speculate. But that didn't stop Francis Buckland, whose father William described the dinosaur Megalosaurus in 1824. A bipedal predator, Megalosaurus stalked England about 165 million years ago. Scientists today believe it was about 20 feet long, but in Victorian times, some naturalists thought it was more than twice that length.

And in 1858, Francis Buckland asked: “Is it not possible that the idea of ​​dragons, whose curious stories are told in various parts of England, owes its origin, in one way or another, to the true existence of these great lizards in Past centuries?" Today we know that dinosaurs were not actually lizards, but Buckland's point is still worth considering: could their bones have been the inspiration for dragons in other parts of the world as well? Our friend and colleague Dr. Emily Zarka, professor at Arizona State University and host of Monstrum, is here to weigh in. Take it, Dr. Z!

Dragons are an integral part of mythology and philosophy in Asia and look quite different from Western legends. The benevolent shape-shifting dragons of China have the physical characteristics of nine different creatures and look very different from the winged, fire-breathing dragons of northern Europe. Wang Fu of the Han Dynasty wrote that each element of the dragon's appearance came from the camel, the cow, the deer, the snake, the clam, the tiger, the eagle, the carp, the annnndd... a demon. Some scholars theorize that each of these are intended to represent the totems of several major tribes of ancient China that were integrated into one.

The dragon appeared in China at least 6,000 years ago and continues to play an important role in religion, mythology, literature and culture. It is said that clouds are formed from his breath. They can fly through the air and become invisible. For the Chinese, dragons symbolize divine power, which controls rain, rivers, the sea and all other bodies of water. They are part of the fundamental Chinese philosophical concept of balance: Yin and Yang. Dragons represent yang, the masculine force. Dragons are also part of their imperial history. During the Han to Qing dynasty period, the great and powerful dragon was associated with emperors as a way to show that they were divinely chosen.

Myths from other parts of East Asia also associate dragons with water and imperial power. In Japan, dragons were believed to control the rains, although in these myths, dragons were crueler and more likely to act in anger than their Chinese counterparts. The Dragon King of Vietnamese mythology was said to be the ruler of the waters and gifted his subjects with fresh water while he dwelt in the salty oceans. But why are myths about dragons so prevalent in East Asia? Fossils probably have something to do with this. Thank you, Dr. Z! And you're right: Some paleontologists believe that fossilized bones could have influenced Asian dragon legends.

A 4th century text dating to the Jin dynasty of China mentions that many dragon bones had been found in what is now Sichuan province. Many sediments in this area date back to the Middle and Late Jurassic period. And those beds are packed with

fossils

, including a variety of dinosaurs: carnivorous theropods, spike-tailed stegosaurids, and colossal sauropods with clubs on the ends of their tails have been found there. Taking all this into account, paleontologist Dong Zhiming once suggested that the supposed “dragon bones” discovered in the 4th century were probably dinosaur remains. And speaking of dinosaurs, let's talk about Protoceratops.

This sheep-sized, hornless relative of the Triceratops lived in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia about 75 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous period. And it was very common. Some dinosaurs are only known from one or two specimens, but we have found literally hundreds of Protoceratops skulls and skeletons, representing every stage of the animal's life. And dinosaur eggs are also very common in the Gobi. Some of the first fossilized dinosaur eggs known to modern science were found there in the 1920s. We still find them today, sometimes in groups that suggest that certain dinosaurs nested colonially. But fossil hunters aren't the only hunters interested in the Gobi.

Nomads began searching for gold in the western part of this desert almost 3,000 years ago. The ancient Greeks began trading with these people sometime in the 7th century BC. And when cultures interact, they exchange monster stories. In this case, Greek travelers were entertained with stories of a winged creature that jealously guarded the gold mines: the griffin. Dr. Z, what can you tell us about those beasts? In classical mythology, the griffin has the body of a lion with the head and wings of an eagle. Griffins have appeared in decorative arts and heraldry from Europe to Asia for thousands of years.

Unlike other mythological chimera-type monsters, these creatures do not have supposed supernatural powers. Although they keep hidden treasures, an association that began in ancient Greek legends and that could be explained by the existence of gold mines in Asia where these creatures were said to live. Furthermore, unlike other hybrid creatures in mythology, the griffin is not associated with any gods or heroes, but is instead seen as living animals. The stories depict them with real animal behaviors, such as roaming in herds, nesting on the ground, and hunting animals and humans alike. Thus, in 1993, Adrienne Mayor, a Stanford University researcher who studies classics and the history of science, proposed that myths about griffins may owe a lot to Protoceratops skeletons.

Like the griffin, Protoceratops was a quadruped with a large, curved beak and triangular projections on the sides of its face that could have been mistaken for mammalian ears. And perhaps the abundant dinosaur eggs and nests reinforced the idea that large creatures, half birds, half mammals, lived in the Gobi. But not everyone accepts these ideas. Paleontologist Mark Witton has argued that griffins might have nothing to do with Protoceratops or prehistoric eggs. Perhaps the legends come from ancient encounters with living animals, uninfluenced by the fossil record. or maybe they were just creative storytellers. And the sites where modern scientists find Protoceratops remains don't actually coincide with gold deposits or trade routes.

Still, we know that some ancient people found fossils. Do you remember our friend, the woolly rhinoceros? Well, in 1978, a team of archaeologists announced that they had discovered a partial leg bone of this species in an unlikely location: the Acropolis of Nichoria. Thousands of years ago, residents of this Bronze Age city in southwestern Greece placed this fossil within their Citadel Shrine. And some different fossilized bones (those of ancient elephants) from other sites around the Mediterranean Sea could be related to one of this region's most iconic monsters: the one-eyed cyclops. Dr. Z, what makes the Cyclops so special?

Well, cyclops monsters are distinguished by the same thing that gives them their name: one, with round eyes. The most famous comes from the classic text The Odyssey by Homer, when the book's hero, Odysseus, encounters an island inhabited by a race of giants who spend all their time tending sheep. Odysseus and some other men end up trapped in a cave with one of these giants, Polyphemus, who begins to eat him. Obviously, the men want to get out of there, so they carve a spear, heat it in the fire, and stab the sleeping giant in the eye, blinding him.

Another famous Greek poet, Hesiod, writes in his Theogony about a trio of "blacksmiths." These three brothers were children of gods and each one was born with only one eye in the middle of their forehead. Known for their metalworking skills and great strength, it is said that they were the ones who gave Zeus his lightning bolt. While each of them has names, they are commonly known as Cyclopes. These Greek myths likely come from the modern idea of ​​the one-eyed cyclops. But they're definitely not the only ones: there are actually stories of one-eyed giants in the histories of many cultures around the world!

Which makes sense when you think about the area where elephant fossils have been found. Thanks for all the knowledge of mythology, Dr. Z. Now, about those old elephant bones... In 1914, an Austrian paleontologist named Othenio Abel proposed that the legends of the cyclops were not

inspired

by rhinos or giants. Instead, he thought they had their roots in dwarf elephant fossils. Specifically, in their skulls. Elephants and their extinct relatives belong to a group called Proboscidea. And the skulls of these animals have really large nasal openings high on the forehead. I mean, the trunk has to go somewhere. So Abel suspected that ancient travelers mistook those cavities for giant eye sockets.

It's a pretty understandable mistake... I mean... I can see where he was coming from. And although wild proboscidians became extinct in Europe about 10,000 years ago, people would have found their fossils later. Plus, with an evolutionary history of almost 20 million years in Europe, which included giants like Deinotherium and Zygolophodon, well, there may have been plenty of strange fossils found. Oh... and then there were the dwarves. As I explained in our episode about shrinking mammoths, a miniature version of the extinct elephant Palaeoloxodon lived on the island of Cyprus. And other pint-sized elephants and mammoths (some measuring less than seven feet tall at the shoulder) resided on Crete, Sicily, and other Mediterranean islands.

So dwarf elephants, club-tailed sauropods, and hairy rhinos are just a few of the amazing (real) animals we know from the fossil record. And although cyclops, dragons and griffins are mythological, planet Earth has seen much stranger creatures in its 4.5 billion year history. But it's not always clear how the ancients interpreted their fossils. Still, by speculating on the connection between dinosaurs and dragons, he reminds us that fossil hunting is as old as humanity itself. And delving into the past, whether through mythology or paleontology, can help us see how fossils might have inspired monsters. Are there other mythical beasts that you think might have had fossil origins?

Let us know the fossil and the myth in the comments! And if you like all the mythology Dr. Z was talking about, be sure to check out Monstrum, another monster-sized PBS Digital Studios channel thanks to this month's eontologists: Patrick Seifert, Jake Hart, Jon Davison Ng and Steve. We also want to let you know that we now have a Discord connected to our Patreon! All ourPatrons have access to exclusive channels where we can chat about eons, paleontology and anything else! Our entire team is there and we are very excited to get to know the Eonites better. You can join us by heading to patreon.com/eons and selecting any membership level.

I see you there! And as always... thank you for joining me at the Konstantin Haase Studio. Subscribe at youtube.com/eons for more creature features!