Draft:Geomyth
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A geomyth is a type of facetious connection between fossils and mythological entities. While fossils have inspired some myths (most famously ammonites being interpreted as "snake rocks), a lot of modern interpretations do not make sense. For example, it is often tauted that dinosaur fossils inspired dragons; however, much such fossils identified as "dragon bones" come from mammals and such indentification post-dates the notion of dragons as mythical creatures.[1]
Griffins and Protoceratops[edit]
A well known geomyth is the indentification of griffins with the dinosaurs Protoceratops. First suggested in the 1990's, this claim ignores the history of griffins outside Central Asia, that griffins are depicted as naturalistic chimeras rather than an attempt to portray Protoceratops skeletons and that said skeletons occur thousands of miles are from gold deposits, directly in contradiction with the alledged guardianship griffins have over gold.[2]