Did The Ancient World Discover Dinosaurs?

G'day ladies and gentlemen! Have you ever wondered if ancient societies like Greece, China and Rome ever discover remains of fossil remains? Specifically, of both dinosaurs and extinct mammals. How could these historical findings of these creature impact their societies cultural aspects? Well that's what I aim to answer today!
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I do not own any of the footage and images utilized, they belong to their respected sources.
Sources
The Lives of the Twelve Caesars by C. Suetonius Tranquillus penelope.uchic...
Pausanias, Description of Greece www.perseus.tu...
Dinosaur fossils and Chinese dragons: ancient association or modern wishful thinking? markwitton-com...
Dinosaurs in Greco-Roman art? doi.org/10.268...
Why Protoceratops almost certainly wasn't the inspiration for the griffin legend markwitton-com...
Dinosaur Fossils in Antiquity www.antiquitat...
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Ancient Greece - Jorge Valenzuela
T.rex - Mark P. Witton
The First Fossil Hunters - Book by Adrienne Mayor
#ancient #ancienthistory #dinosaur #fossil #greece #rome #china

[@oscarstainton]

I think it's very probable ancient cultures found skeletal evidence of megafauna and the occasional dinosaur tooth, or something more substantial in a quarry. It makes sense that fossils would inspire mythological creatures all over the world. Its amazing to think that fossils of dinosaurs and prehistoric mammals inspired so much imagination for thousands of years before they paleontologists began to properly excavate them.
Now, imagine if the prehistoric ecosystems and the Ancient World coexisted side by side...

[@TheOverseerDebates]

It's interesting to think many of the stories and myths surrounding ancient societies could've been inspired by occasional fossil remains whether dinosaur or not!
Though if they did coexist that would be a site to see.

[@us3rG]

The ancient knows Anatomy better than the average living today, they have actually lived with animals we don't even know.

[@cemilhan725]

Yes, they did. They discovered penguins and terror birds.

[@luky1346]

How could have ancient Rome, Greece and China discovered terror birds and penguins, when terror birds lived in America (at that time completely unknown continent) and penguins lived and still live in the southern part of the planet, where none of these cultures ever travelled?

[@callumpearman3838]

​@luky1346 as far as I'm aware some terror birds still existed in new Zealand up to around 500 years ago or sooner

[@alexthekid3377]

Oh no 🐧🐦‍⬛😰

[@Godzilla00X]

Imagine romans and dinosaur, sounds like a metal combo

[@markcobuzzi826]

Genndy Tartakovsky seemed to agree, when he briefly had that imagery appear in Season 2 of Primal.

[@andydavis8437]

I think when I read Tacitus I remember he describes emperor Tiberius as displaying bones of extinct animals. He doesn't say dragons or monsters and is definitive about them no longer existing. No interpretation as to what they were, just extinct.

[@dilly-dally-mations6851]

Me: shows king arthur a trex at the smitsonian.
King Arthur: my god, i faught one of these.
Curator: hold up.

[@bm-ub6zc]

i think the ancient world lacked knowledge about a lot of non-extinct creatures at that time and they knew it. like lot of northern europeans didn't know what a lion or tiger looked like. so when they found fossils, it could have been anything. back then it wasn't worth it to speculate about it too much, because what's the point. even when some nobody from the countryside declared some bones as some species xy, who would've paid attention to him?

[@tobiasedwards2643]

I think you should talk about other ancient cultures discovering fossils.

[@justing1810]

They probably thought the fossils were dragons.

[@dann_mrtins]

Ancient Grace

[@zlatanibrahimovic1915]

Hmm. I have my doubts about the Cyclops one just because it would be easy enough to correct when seeing elephants over time, considering how globalized and connected Greece was with areas of Africa. But it could be possible that a few times in history, (like Greek Dark Ages for example) isolated instances could have people incorrectly associated bones with already existing myths. Just don't really think that it started the myth is all.

[@weakest_serb]

I mean maybe? I doubt most Greeks at the time even knew of elephants existence, let alone how they looked like, or their morphology or body plan.
Sure, the scientists or explorers did, but the regular people who discovered or saw these elephant skulls probably didn't even know about elephants, so they imagined them as cyclops.
Even if the scientists and explorers were to correct them, the myth went out of control fast and there is no way to contain it.
Telling the villagers :
"Oh no, it isn't a one eyed human, it is a gigantic four legged, 4 meter tall, 6 ton animal with big ears and a long, articulated snout that it uses to feed that comes out of that hole."
It would be even less believable to these people than a cyclop, which is just a 1 eyed human.

[@us3rG]

Stop assuming you better than people lol. Those people know anatomy of animals and humans better than most people living today, ​@@weakest_serb

[@Hujjee]

Ayo

[@monsterzero521]

Brit empire 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 ruled the world. You guys are the servent .

[@ace4809]

Their empire collapsed already.