The myth of the connection between griffins and dinosaurs has been dispelled

Popular opinion claims that the mythical griffin is a mixture of an eagle and a lion, created on the basis of dinosaur fossils discovered once by our ancestors. However, new research suggests that this hypothesis is unreliable.

Images of griffins were first used in the art of Egypt and the Middle East back in the IV millennium BC, and only in the VIII century AD they became especially popular in the culture of Ancient Greece.

The connection between dinosaur fossils and descriptions of griffins was first voiced in the late 1980s in the work of folklorist Adrienne Mayor. She tried to unite classical and cryptozoologists by publishing the book "The First Fossil Hunters" in 2000. Mayor was an influential figure in the field of "geomythology", studying oral and written traditions that arose before the scientific era. According to her theory, Afro-Eurasian mythologies could have been inspired by the fossils of protoceratops, a horned dinosaur related to triceratops. According to the scientist, ancient nomads found dinosaur remains during the search for gold and the first images of griffins appeared on their basis.

However, these days, Dr. Mark Whitton and Richard Hing, paleontologists at the University of Portsmouth, have rejected such an explanation. Experts note that dinosaur skeletons are usually impossible to detect without the use of modern equipment and research methods. In addition, the gold deposits were located far from the habitat of the lizard.

Whitton and Hing emphasize that the fossil version requires even more thorough verification, which it most likely will not withstand.