Here are pictures of mythical creatures and fossils to illustrate the close relationship between them. As Nika finds out in the story, it seems that ancient peoples got their ideas of such creatures from actually looking at fossils of dinosaurs and ice age animals. This explains why so many cultures around the world, who had no contact in ancient times, all share the basic idea of dragons.

Tiamat, the Babylonian mother of the gods

A bronze Chinese dragon in Beijing

The Greek "drakon", a man-eating monster

A Viking dragon

A Balinese dragon from Indonesia

Giraffokeryx, found in northern India and Africa, has a strong resemblance to the Asian dragon, with its long skull and multiple horns.

The "Lindwurm" in the Austrian town Klagenfurt, modeled on a wooly rhinoceros skull that was discovered in the 14th century

The fossil model for the Klagenfurt dragon

A medieval St. George's dragon, looking
more like a dog with horns...!

Doesn't this plateosaurus skull
resemble St. George's dragon?

A complete fossilized Ichthyosaurus in the Hauff museum, which Nika saw for herself!

One of the pterosaur fossils found near Solnhofen, Bavaria

Skeleton of a cave bear. In this cave in Austria, remains of over 30,000 bears have been found! If ancient people found them, too, they must have thought they were the bones of monsters! The name of this cave is "Drachenhöhle", which means "Dragon Cave"...!