The Origin and Evolution of Dragon Myths Across Cultures

 Dragons are mythical creatures that appear in legends and folklore around the world. They are often depicted as large, reptilian beasts with wings, horns, claws, and fiery breath. But why do so many different cultures have stories about dragons, even though they never existed in reality?

One possible explanation is that ancient people misinterpreted the fossils of extinct animals, such as dinosaurs, and imagined them as living monsters.

Adrienne Mayor, a classical folklorist and historian of ancient science at Stanford University, has argued that this is how the myth of the griffin, a lion-eagle hybrid, originated. She suggests that people in Central Asia encountered the skeletons of Protoceratops, a dinosaur with a beak and a frill, and gave them a mythical identity.

Similarly, people who found the bones of Tyrannosaurus rex or other large predators might have envisioned them as dragons. This could explain why some dragon myths feature details that resemble paleontological facts, such as the presence of scales, teeth, and claws....<<<Read More>>>...