Figure 1: A mastodon skull. Notice, the hole in the center of the skull. This is where the large trunk (nose) was attached. A skull like this seems to have been the source of legends of cyclops.

Image you are living in 200 BC in the Middle East and you come by the skull to the right (Fig. 1) as you plow your field or when you explore the local cave complex.  What if you are wandering the desert  in Egypt and happen upon the bones in the second figure. Or what about the skull in the third figure?  What if you came upon the jaw of a dinosaur (Fig. 4) in the sandstone rocks?   What would you  think?  What would you think they came from?

Surely you would think they came from something that had been alive because you are familiar with the dried bones and skulls of…