"The First Fossil Hunters: Dinosaurs, Mammoths, and Myth in Greek and Roman Times" by Adrienne Mayor

 

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Copyright: 2010 (Revised Edition)

ISBN: 9780691150130

This was without a doubt one of the better books on the history of palaeontology I have read recently. I came across this pretty much by accident as I was looking for some reference material that would give me insight into where the origins of the mythology of dragons might have come from as at the time I was writing an article on the subject. I'm not exactly sure as I write this exactly what got me interested in the topic to begin with, but then again that was a few years ago, but it likely could have been something one of the school children asked me while I was touring them through the our lab. Prior to finding this book, I was getting rather frustrated as there didn't seem to be much material on the subject - which was rather annoying to say the least. 

After finding this resource things began to click into place, as there really isn't a whole lot of information on the topic. As I learned from this book there is a great deal of fossil evidence in the Mediterranean basin with regard to palaeomammalogy, but very little prior to this as the area was quite geologically active. It also didn't help that many palaeontologists weren't overly interested in the topic, which was a shame.

This book has given me sufficient that I believe the mythological Griffin could easily have been influenced by the discovery of either Protoceratops, or Psittacosaurus, both of whom are from the Cretaceous period. But this still didn't satisfy my curiosity about dragons, after all they supposedly looked quite a bit different. As I moven through the text I feel it is rather likely that "dragons" were possibly influenced by prehistoric mammals such as Samotherium a giant Miocene giraffe found as the name suggests in Samos Greece - at least the skull sure looks like the head of a classical dragon, and with a long neck I feel it's a pretty good candidate.

Dr. Mayor has done a fantastic amount of valuable research on this topic, and this book is well worth reading and would make a great addition to any library. I would also recommend it as reference material to any Classics, Archaeology, or Palaeontology professors as a great resource. I look forward to reading her other work.