With the majestic wings of a bird of prey and the fierce body of a lion, the mythological griffin was a staple in ancient Middle Eastern and European cultures. For over 30 years, the general consensus that the legend of this creature associated with strength and protection originated with dinosaur fossils. However, a study published June 20 in the journal Interdisciplinary Science Reviews is challenging this idea.
The origin of a myth
Fossils and other natural phenomena that inspire folklore are called “geomyths.” Some speculative examples include dragons and dinosaurs and fossil elephants and cyclopes.
“We promote these stories because they’re exciting and seem intuitively plausible, but doing so ignores our growing knowledge of fossil geomyths grounded in fact and evidence,” study co-author and University of Portsmouth paleontologist Mark Witton said in a statement. “These are just as interesting as their conjectural counterparts, and probably deserve more attention than entirely speculated geomythological scenarios.”
The griffin itself is one of humanity’s oldest mythological creatures. It first appeared in Egyptian and Middle Eastern art around the 4th millennium BCE and became popular in ancient Greece around the 8th century BCE.
A series of papers and books written by folklorist Adrienne Mayor first published about 30 years ago called for collaboration between classicists and cryptozoologists to decipher origins of mythological creatures. Mayor’s landmark 2000 book The First Fossil Hunters suggested that Protoceratops was behind the griffin’s legend. The theory goes that this early horned dinosaur was discovered by ancient nomads who were prospecting for gold throughout Central Asia. The stories of Protoceratops bones eventually traveled southwest via various trade routes, where they inspired or influenced art and stories featuring the griffin.
[Related: Could dragons be real? Not in the way we think.]
Protoceratops was about 6.5 feet long and lived in Mongolia and northern China during the Cretaceous Period (75-71 million years ago). While they are related to the more famous Triceratops, they lacked facial horns. Like griffins, Protoceratops had four legs and some frill-like extensions on their skulls. Some scientists believe that these frills were interpreted as wings by early fossil hunters.
Fossils and gold
In this new study, a team from the University of Portsmouth re-evaluated the historical fossil record, the distribution of Protoceratops fossils, and classical texts linking the mythological creature with the real-life dinosaur. They consulted with various historians and archaeologists to fully understand the conventional, non-fossil-based view of the griffin’s origin story. Ultimately, none of the arguments withstood scientific scrutiny.
For example, the idea that Protoceratops was discovered by people prospecting for gold is unlikely because the fossils have been found hundreds of miles away from gold sites. Gold has not been reported alongside any Protoceratops fossil in the 100 or so years after Protoceratops was discovered by modern scientists. The team also believes it is doubtful that the nomads would have seen that many Protoceratops bones, even if they were searching for gold where their fossils were located.
[Related: 240-million-year-old ‘Chinese dragon’ fossil reveals 32 separate neck vertebrae.]
“There is an assumption that dinosaur skeletons are discovered half-exposed, lying around almost like the remains of recently-deceased animals,” said Witton. “But generally speaking, just a fraction of an eroding dinosaur skeleton will be visible to the naked eye, unnoticed to all except for sharp-eyed fossil hunters. That’s almost certainly how ancient peoples wandering around Mongolia encountered Protoceratops.”
If they had wanted to see more of the skeleton to form myths around it, they could have needed to extract the fossil from the surrounding rock. According to Witton, extracting these fossils from the rock is no small task, even with more modern tools, adhesives, protective wrapping, and techniques.
“It seems more probable that Protoceratops remains, by and large, went unnoticed—if the gold prospectors were even there to see them,” said Witton.
The griffin’s spread
The team also found that the historical geographic spread of griffin art doesn’t align with the scenario of griffin lore starting with some fossils in Central Asia and spreading west. They also couldn’t find any unambiguous reference to Protoceratops fossils in ancient literature. Protoceratops’ only similarity to the griffin is that it was a four-limbed animal with a beak. There were no details in griffin art suggesting that their fossils were referenced, but many griffins were clearly depicted with features of living birds and cats.
“Invoking a role for dinosaurs in griffin lore, especially species from distant lands like Protoceratops, not only introduces unnecessary complexity and inconsistencies to their origins, but also relies on interpretations and proposals that don’t withstand scrutiny,” said Witton.
The team believes that there is strong evidence of fossils being culturally important throughout human history, but that we should distinguish between folklore and fact.
“There is nothing inherently wrong with the idea that ancient peoples found dinosaur bones and incorporated them into their mythology, but we need to root such proposals in realities of history, geography and paleontology,” study co-author and paleontologist Richard Hing said in a statement. “Otherwise, they are just speculation.”
