Comments on: New Mexico River Serpent

By: U.T. Raptor

U.T. Raptor — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 02:45:31 +0000

“Actually, they had a show about how a lot of the Greek legends may be based on finding ancient fossils on one of the science channels”
There are also at least two fairly in-depth books (one on primarily Greece and Rome, the other on the Americas) on the subject, which I recommend reading…

By: mystery_man

mystery_man — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 15:54:06 +0000

Very interesting little account. I wonder what kind of fossil it was that they found?

By: sschaper

sschaper — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 05:53:05 +0000

Sounds like a large mudpuppy-like amphibian. And reminds me of central American stories of feathered serpents and human sacrifice.

By: Mnynames

Mnynames — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 03:30:05 +0000

Phoenix is referring to Protoceratops, regarding the Griffin legends. Specifically, the Griffins were said to line their nests with gold, which were greatly prized by local tribes of Pygmies (The original use of the term, I believe. Early accounts place them in Scythia and far Asia, where the fossil sites are located. Later accounts move them to Ethiopia). The fossilization process of the Protoceratops and specifically their numerous nest sites (the first dino eggs ever found, discovered by the famed Indiana Jones-like paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews) apparently acted something like a strainer, collecting gold deposits, meaning that nests of strange, beaked creatures could be found that contained gold. Fossils were also commonly found in early excavations of ancient Greek temples, but oddly, were seldom preserved.

By: Phoenix

Phoenix — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 19:55:59 +0000

Actually, they had a show about how a lot of the Greek legends may be based on finding ancient fossils on one of the science channels. For example, the original stories of griffins had them guarding some gold mines, and sure enough one of the ancient gold mines had the fossils of one of the triceratops-style dinosaurs (no horns), where the skeleton would have the bird-like beak, quadruped skeleton, and the bones from the neck-frill could look like wings. Mammoth skulls would have fairly small eye sockets on the side, and a huge hole in the center of the ‘face’ for the trunk/nasal cavity, hence the cyclops. Dragons are pretty easy to explain, obviously. Giants were from finding the leg bones of mammoths or dinos, and thinking they were gigantic human leg bones.

By: UKCryptid

UKCryptid — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 19:24:23 +0000

fredfacker, yes i agree, finding huge bones, teeth etc must have been very scarey for people not sure on their origins.

By: UKCryptid

UKCryptid — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 19:23:31 +0000

In my village the teens are breeding faster than rabbits so it wouldn’t have been a problem to provide the serpent with food if it were here
Mind you it does say in all fairness it was also thought to eat the sick and dying. Anyway, besides all that, this is an interesting bit of folklore, probably not to be taken literally but interesting no doubt. All myths and legends are born from something, perhaps a large snake merely terrified these villagers (as they still do today) due to not understanding the creature as a biological entity rather than a ‘demigod’.

By: fredfacker

fredfacker — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 18:40:20 +0000

I’ve often wondered how many legends originated from early cultures discovering dinosaur fossils.

By: lastensugle

lastensugle — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 18:00:36 +0000

It must have been hard for the population of a village, to provide a baby every single month!