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Letter: Out of the corner of my eye I spied a monstrous thing (2)

Published 2 October 2024

From Guy Cox, Sydney, Australia

I and many others have argued that goblins, elves, pixies etc. are folk memories of other Homo or hominin species, which we know coexisted with our species.

Now, I am going to take this one stage further in relation to “monsters”. The mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous apparently wiped out 100 per cent of dinosaurs. I suggest that a few, scarce, surviving dinosaurs were around long enough after this to create the myth of dragons, found throughout Eurasia from Scandinavia to China. Of course, fire-breathing creatures are biologically impossible. However, on a cold morning, a warm-blooded reptile would have steam on its breath like a mammal, so it is easy to see how the legend could have arisen.

Issue no. 3511 published 5 October 2024

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