101 evidences for a young age...

There is some compelling evidence that suggests Greeks and other ancient cultures dabbled considerably in paleontology. It is theorized that many of their mythologies stem from discovering fossilized dinosaur remains.The image below is a Corinthian artifact dated at around 560-540 B.C. The artists rendering is of some kind of mythological beast, a kind of chimera, that a Greek warrior is fighting. If you look closely at the head of the beast you'll note that it almost appears to be a skull, specifically that of an extinct dinosaur along with artistic modifications.Anyone with the best guess as to the species gets a firm handshake a pat on the back. Another website critiquing the book from which this image derives goes over the plausibility of its contents and describes this,"The figures, like on most Greek vases and such, are fully fleshed out and well done, but note the monster emerging from the cave. Note the skeletal appearance - including sclerotic eye rings, the jaw articulation and the broken premaxilla. The skull itself is probably chimerical - that is composed of traits of several species. For example, the sclerotic eye rings appear only in dinosaurs and birds, not mammals, yet other features of the skull are mammalian. From there Mayor surveys archaeological discoveries of fossil bones. For example, Schliemann found a fossil in his Troy excavations."The jacket of the book entitled, "The First Fossil Hunters:
Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times," describes this,"They frequently encountered the fossilized bones of these primeval beings, and they developed sophisticated concepts to explain the fossil evidence, concepts that were expressed in mythological stories. The legend of the gold-guarding griffin, for example, sprang from tales first told by Scythian gold-miners, who, passing through the Gobi Desert at the foot of the Altai Mountains, encountered the skeletons of Protoceratops and other dinosaurs that littered the ground.Like their modern counterparts, the ancient fossil hunters collected and measured impressive petrified remains and displayed them in temples and museums; they attempted to reconstruct the appearance of these prehistoric creatures and to explain their extinction. Long thought to be fantasy, the remarkably detailed and perceptive Greek and Roman accounts of giant bone finds were actually based on solid paleontological facts."If you really think about it, this helps to make mythological motives more evident. it is more than just possible or plausible. It's very likely that they did in fact stumble upon fossil remains and tried to explain what they were looking at. Clearly the evidence was right in front of them. Now they needed a theory. The writers also further suggest that at one point proto-paleontology in Greek and Roman culture became a lucrative and sought after practice. I don't doubt it.I've long advocated that seldom a myth springs out of thin air without any cause. I wouldn't hesitate to assume that in almost all mythologies, there are shreds of truth interlaced with speculative interpretation. Edited by Hyroglyphx, : No reason given.Edited by Hyroglyphx, : No reason given.Edited by Hyroglyphx, : No reason given.

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"Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear." Thomas Jefferson

Wow, now that I think about it that makes a lot of sense. But you know, there really is an extremely rare deformity aptly named Cyclopia that causes the eyes to fuse in to one large one. Perhaps this coupled with Mastodon skeletons allowed for it to pass in to their folklore more easily.

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"Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear." Thomas Jefferson