The Worlds of Katherine Kurtz

for those Morgan fans out there, there is a good exhibit at the Boston Science musuem about origins of mythological creatures.

griffin legends arose from a gold mine in north africa, when they kept finding a lion-sized dinosaur fossil with what looked like wings.

no mention of stenrechts however

I remember reading an article in ARCHAEOLOGY about how in a certain part of Central Asia, near the hypothetical original home of the Indo-European peoples, there are frequently found near the surface dinosaur bones that could be interpreted as something like gryphons if one didn't know better.

Also, if you take an elephant or mammoth skeleton, not knowing what it is, and assemble it on the assumption that it is the skeleton of a giant human, the hole for the trunk looks like a single eye in the middle of the forehead.  Hence--cyclops.

they have a couple cyclops heads too.  Also a skull that looks very much like a dragon's.  Its an ancient rhino's head