The Griffin and the Dinosaur (National Geographic)

Could Griffins have been real? When Adrienne Mayor carefully read the ancient Greek and Roman descriptions, this mythic hybrid of a lion and an eagle sounded like something people had actually seen. What could explain that evidence?

After a decade of hunting through myths, poring over old maps, and tracing the discoveries of modern dinosaur hunters, she found the answer: awesome dinosaur fossils observed by ancient gold-hunters in the Gobi desert.

Here is the story of one insightful, curious, and determined woman who solved the mystery of the Griffin, and invented a new science. Now she and others travel the world matching myths and fossils.

"In another forcefully written tribute to the thrill of archaeological discovery, Aronson, author of If Stones Could Speak (2010), retraces coauthor Mayor’s search for evidence to support the idea that griffins and other monsters in ancient Greek mythology were inspired by dinosaur fossils. That search begins in a library (what better place?) and leads through clues carefully gathered from art and folklore of the Greek islands, the remote gold fields of the ancient Scythians, and all the way to the justly renowned fossil beds of Mongolia’s Flaming Cliffs. Plenty of on-site sketches, photos of artifacts, and artist’s conceptions from Muller add dramatic visual elements to the tale, and the maps and resource lists at the end (not seen) will provide intrigued readers with avenues for further study of the tantalizing links 'between,' as the subtitle puts it, 'myth and science.' As a largely self-taught researcher, rather than a pure product of academe, Mayor also provides a model for Aronson’s liberating, if arguable, contention that 'anyone can become an expert, it just takes being patient, observant, and curious.' - Booklist