Contrary To Popular Claims, Mythical Griffins Were Not Inspired By Dinosaur Fossils

According to a popular and widespread belief, the mythical griffin – that eagle-faced, winged lion monster – was inspired by dinosaur fossils discovered by ancient peoples. But new analysis suggests this may not have been the case.

Griffins (sometimes spelled "griffon" or "gryphon") are among the oldest known mythological creatures. They are a composite creature made up of elements of different animals, which first appeared in Egyptian and Middle Eastern art during the fourth millennium BCE. This is long before they became popular in ancient Greek culture during the eighth century BCE.

The link between dinosaur fossils and the descriptions of griffins first appeared in the late 1980s. At the time, the folklorist Adrienne Mayor published a series of books and papers that sought to join classicists and cryptozoologists in mutual collaboration. Her efforts culminated in the publication of the The First Fossil Hunters in 2000, which was a seminal book.

Many of the most popular examples of fossils inspiring myths are bogus.

Dr Mark Witton

Mayor was an influential figure in the discipline of “geomythology”, which essentially studies oral and written traditions created by pre-scientific cultures. According to her work on griffins, which started in the 1970s, Afro-Eurasian mythologies were inspired by fossils of Protoceratops , a horned dinosaur related to Triceratops , which roamed around what is now Mongolia during the Late Cretaceous period.

Mayor believed that ancient nomads found the dinosaurs bones while prospecting for gold in Central Asia. As they examined them, these people may have started to speculate about what type of animal could possibly have left them behind. For one thing, the large (small for a dinosaur at 2 meters [6.5 feet] long) animal stood on four legs, like griffins are shown to do, and it had a skull complete with a characteristic beak and a strange frill-like extension that, so Mayor argued, could have been thought of as wings.

As news about the Protoceratops remains spread southwest along trade routes, they inspired or at least influenced the stories and art depicting griffins.

For the last 30 years, this explanation has remained the main interpretation of how the griffin came into being, but Dr Mark Witton and Richard Hing, palaeontologists at the University of Portsmouth, have challenged this idea.

By re-examining the historical fossil record, examining the distribution and nature of Protoceratops remains, studying classical sources linking griffins to these bones, and also consulting historians and archaeologists, the pair have reached some alternative views. Their research suggests an origin for the griffin that does not require fossils – in fact, none of the fossil-related arguments work at all, they claim.

For instance, this idea that nomad prospectors in Central Asia started the story is not likely true, as Protoceratops appear hundreds of miles away from historical gold sites. To date, no gold has been found alongside the remains of this dinosaur. And even if prospectors did find bones, they would likely have been insufficient to inspire such imagery.

It's common to hear that fossil elephants inspired the cyclops, or dinosaurs inspired dragons, but these ideas are just as speculative and problematic as the proposal that dinosaurs inspired griffins.

Dr Mark Witton

“There is an assumption that dinosaur skeletons are discovered half-exposed, lying around almost like the remains of recently-deceased animals,” Dr Witton explained in statement . “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.”

This, Witton argues, is “almost certainly” how ancient peoples stumbled on Protoceratops in Mongolia.

“If they wanted to see more, as they’d need to if they were forming myths about these animals, they’d have to extract the fossil from the surrounding rock. That is no small task, even with modern tools, glues, protective wrapping and preparatory techniques. It seems more probable that Protoceratops remains, by and large, went unnoticed – if the gold prospectors were even there to see them.”

At the same time, the geographic distribution of griffin art across history does not align with the idea that their lore arose from Central Asia before spreading west. There is also no unambiguous reference to the dinosaur in ancient literature. In contrast, the images we do have of griffins are clearly composed of cat and bird features.

“Everything about griffin origins is consistent with their traditional interpretation as imaginary beasts, just as their appearance is entirely explained by them being chimeras of big cats and raptorial birds. 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.”

Despite these limits to the griffin story, both Witton and Hing stress that fossils have been culturally important throughout human history. There are innumerable instances of them inspiring folklore, but there are many misconceptions too.

“[F]ossils have inspired folklore for millennia, although many of the most popular examples of fossils inspiring myths are bogus,” Witton told IFLScience. “It's common to hear that fossil elephants inspired the cyclops, or dinosaurs inspired dragons, but these ideas are just as speculative and problematic as the proposal that dinosaurs inspired griffins.”

“If we drill into history, classical texts and archaeology, however, we find many excellent connections between fossils and folklore. Fossil bones of recently extinct species like mammoths and woolly rhinos were once regarded as the remains of giants, or heroic figures in Greek or Christian stories, and ancient/historic peoples collected their remains. Fossil mammals have been interpreted as the bones of Chinese dragons and sold in pharmaceutical stores as home remedies. Ammonites (coiled shellfish related to squid and octopus) are associated with snakes in many cultures and have been used as folk remedies for various ailments.”

The commonality between these “geomyths” and fossils in folklore is simply that the latter are relatively easy to find. Dinosaur bones, in contrast, are not.

“They are difficult to locate, and even more difficult to extract from the rock that holds them. This is one of the many problems with the griffin- Protoceratops connection”, Witton explained to IFLScience.

The study is published in Interdisciplinary Science Reviews .