Paleontology in Antiquity

In The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times, Adrienne Mayor suggests that the fossilized remains of prehistoric megafauna were likely seen as proof of the cyclopean monsters, fearsome gods and wrathful giants of Classical myth. The truth is that paleontological thought in antiquity was far more sophisticated. As early as the 6th century BC, the discovery of stony creatures, half-buried in the earth, led thinkers like Xenophanes, Herodotus, Eratosthenes, Strabo, and Aristotle to draw remarkably accurate conclusions about geological, tectonic and climatic processes.