Gryphons make an appearance in a lot of different stories, from works of modern fiction like Harry Potter, to thousand-year-old tales from Ancient Greece.
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With the lion traditionally considered the king of beasts and the eagle king of the birds, the gryphon has long been considered a powerful and majestic creature – often known for guarding priceless treasures.
Some suggest myths of these half-lion, half-eagle hybrids can trace their origins all the way back to nomads who hunted gold across the deserts of Central Asia 3,000 years ago.
As well as finding gold, it’s said these prospectors also found fossils of Protoceratops and Psittacosaurus, two dinosaurs that - if you squint hard enough - look like gryphons, with their long bodies, four legs, and beaked skulls. These fossils were apparently shared with the ancient Greeks who popularised gryphons and created the classic image we all now recognise.
Not everyone agrees that Protoceratops and Psittacosaurus, distant cousins of Triceratops, inspired this particular myth. Palaeontologist Mark Witton contests the idea on the basis that depictions of hybrid animals with birds’ heads and mammals’ bodies were made long before the time that ancient Greeks met and traded with gold hunters from Central Asia.
Top image credit: Anastasia Korchagina/Getty Images
