8 Types of Mythical Creatures 'Uncovered' in Fossil Records

The fantastical and vibrant mythological beings imagined by our ancestors—dragons, unicorns, griffins—weren’t purely products of imagination. In certain instances, ancient fossils emerging from the ground might have sparked the creation of these legendary creatures. More recently, entertainers and the misinformed have intentionally showcased fossils as 'proof' of mythical beings—after all, monsters attract significant attention. Here are eight types of legendary creatures once 'identified' through fossils.

1. Griffins

Ancient Greek writers recounted tales of Scythians searching for gold who clashed with griffins in the depths of the Gobi Desert. These legendary creatures—featuring lion bodies and eagle-like beaks and wings—were believed to guard gold mines. Folklorist Adrienne Mayor has persuasively suggested that these Greek narratives were influenced by fossils of Protoceratops dinosaurs, which were abundant in the Gobi Desert and remain plentiful there today. Similar to griffins, the Protoceratops had four legs, a beak, and elongated shoulder blades that might have been mistaken for wings—though it wasn’t associated with gold mining.

2. Cyclopes

The ancient Greeks also held the belief that the island of Sicily was inhabited by legendary one-eyed giants called Cyclopes. Since as early as the 1300s, scholars have noted that Sicily and other Mediterranean regions were once populated by an ancient elephant species. Their massive skulls closely resemble the heads of Cyclopes. These elephant skulls, still found in the area, feature a large central nasal cavity where the trunk was attached, which could easily be mistaken for a single, oversized eye socket.

3. Tengu

In Japan, fossilized shark teeth have been seen as the elongated, pointed claws of Tengu, mythical creatures that are part-human and part-bird. These fossils, referred to as tengu-no-tsume or 'Tengu’s claw,' are believed to ward off evil spirits and heal demonic possession. They are often enshrined in temples as sacred artifacts.

4. Giant Humans

In Greece, the unearthing of enormous bones from mammoths, mastodons, and woolly rhinoceroses was interpreted as proof of the existence of colossal giants and legendary heroes. Even St. Augustine and the prolific Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher mistakenly identified massive teeth and bones from prehistoric mammals as signs of giants, a belief that persists to some extent even today.

As noted by scholar James L. Hayward, one of the most striking examples of such misidentification involved the renowned Swiss physician Johann Jacob Scheuchzer. In 1726, he published a 24-page treatise titled Homo diluvii testis ('The man who witnessed the flood'). The work described fossil skeletons discovered in lakebeds near Oeningen, Switzerland, which he claimed were the remains of ancient humans who lived before Noah’s flood. This treatise was cited as 'evidence' of pre-flood humans until 1787. Later, paleontologist Georges Cuvier accurately identified the fossils as belonging to a giant salamander.

5. Unicorns

During the Middle Ages, Danish sailors transported the slender, pale, twisted horns of the narwhal to Europe, where they were thought to be the remnants of mystical unicorns with potent healing properties. Narwhal horns played a key role in shaping the modern image of unicorns, as earlier depictions varied in shape and color. However, the narwhal’s horn solidified the iconic long, white horn we associate with unicorns today.

Narwhals weren’t the only creatures mistaken for unicorns: In 1663, German naturalist Otto von Güericke created the first-known reconstruction of Pleistocene mammals, dubbing his clumsy creation a two-legged 'unicorn.' (The unicorn’s 'horn' is believed to be a mammoth tusk, though some sources claim he used a narwhal horn combined with mammoth and woolly rhinoceros bones).

6. Dragons

Remains of various creatures, including the woolly rhinoceros, have been claimed to be those of dragons. For instance, the town hall in Klagenfurt, Austria, once displayed a woolly rhinoceros skull as the bones of the Lindwurm, a serpent-like dragon said to have plagued the region before being defeated by knights. The town’s Lindwurmbrunnen (dragon fountain), built in the 16th century and still standing, was modeled after that very skull.

Fossils of lepidodendron (an ancient tree-like plant) have also been showcased as dragon skin, and not too long ago. In 1851, some were displayed in Wales as fragments of a massive fossilized serpent. (To the untrained eye, the leaf bases on the plant’s trunk can resemble scales.)

In Asia, dinosaur fossils have historically been misidentified as dragon bones and teeth. Even today, 'dragon bones' are sold by traditional medicine practitioners in eastern and southeastern Asia, where they are believed to treat madness, diarrhea, and various illnesses. These medicinal items are actually made from the fossils of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures unearthed in China’s fossil-rich regions.

7. Vishnu’s Wheel

During medieval times in Europe, fossilized ammonites—an extinct group of marine invertebrates—were thought to be petrified coiled snakes. They were seen as proof of the miraculous deeds of saints like St. Hilda, who was said to have turned snakes into stone.

In the Himalayas, fossil ammonites are revered as sacred objects, believed to be the discs or wheels of the Hindu deity Vishnu (who holds a disc or wheel in one of his four hands). These fossils are highly respected by Hindus across India, while in Nepal and Tibet, they symbolize the 8-spoked wheel of the law, dharmachakra.

8. Sea Serpents

Specimens claimed to be from 'sea serpents' have been identified as decomposing basking sharks, misshapen snakes, and floating seaweed clusters. In the 1840s, fraudster Albert Koch scoured the clay fields of Clarke County, Alabama, collecting bones from Basilosaurus, a 40-million-year-old genus of a massive, whale-like reptile. Koch pieced together these bones into a 114-foot-long creature he named Hydroarchos, the 'water king.' This monstrosity was twice the size of the actual Basilosaurus and clearly a composite rather than a single skeleton, yet King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia purchased it for his Royal Anatomical Museum. (Koch later crafted another for a Chicago museum.) In 1845, Koch displayed the 'great sea serpent' at New York City’s Apollo Saloon, charging 25 cents for admission.

This article was originally published in 2015 and has been revised for 2021.