by Christine Senter

Created on: July 21, 2008

There was a time when humans believed in strange creatures such as the Cyclops, the Gryphon, and other mythical beasts. Since that time, we've come to believe that these creatures were nothing more than legends and stories, handed down from one generation to the next. However, there is a growing mind set that some of these creatures truly existed, just not in the way we think.

For instance, tales of a sea creature called the Kraken has been talked about since the very first ships set out to sea. Sailors would come back to port telling tales of a gigantic creature with long tentacles that could reach up and wrap around the entire ship. These tales came to be thought of as nothing but myth, but we are learning that the Kraken may have been a real creature in the form of the giant squid. It wasn't that long ago that we thought that the giant squid was a legend, until one of them washed up on a beach. Recently, a Japanese scientists captured still photographs of a live giant squid.

Another creature that came from the days of myths and legends, are the stories of the Cyclops. These were supposed to be humans that stood 100 feet tall and only had one eye in the middle of their foreheads. Researchers are beginning to believe that this creature was once a living being, only he wasn't a man, he was a mastodon. It is thought that when ancient man found the fossils of long dead animals, like the elephant, they believed them to be the remains of mythic creatures. The skull of a mastodon is similar in shape to that of a human head, with the exception of one large hole in the front. Today, we know that this is where the trunk attaches to the skull and that the eye sockets are found on the sides. However, the ancients would have seen this large hole as an eye socket, being in the front.

The Gryphon is another beast from ancient legends. It was thought to be an animal made up from bits of other animals. The Gryphon was said to have the body of a lion, and the head and wings of an eagle. Archaeologists have speculated that these myths could have come from the fossilized bones of a protoceratops. This animal had the same beak-like appendage as was seen on many representations of the Gryphon, and it is thought that the fragile bone that would have been on the back of the head, would have been lying near the creatures back, giving the impression of wings.

Of course, most of this is mere speculation on the part of the archaeologists, but there is a lot of truth behind it. It's known that the hills in and around many Greek sites are rich in fossils. Farmers of the day would more than likely found several of them while cultivating the land. There have been many instances where archaeologists have discovered ancient temples in the region, that contained a variety of dinosaur bones.

Fantasy creatures may not have been exactly what we know them to be today, but they really did exist. It's only because of a human desire to make sense of one's surroundings, that these animals became the mythic beasts of legend.

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