The famous “Skeleton of Atlas,” that bizarre giant-sized skeleton claimed by Tertullian to be the remains of the giant Atlas, has finally been positively identified as the fossilized skeleton of a giant gorilla, extinct since the last Ice Age. That Tertullian would make this error isn’t that surprising: Adrienne Mayor’s book The First Fossil Hunters makes explicit the point that ancient Romans and Greeks often make conscious of the myth-making processes that created links between the monsters and giants of their own myths and the unusual fossils that were unearthed during construction projects, natural erosion, etc. If, as Mayor claims, “real elephant teeth inspired an archaic myth about dragon teeth” (164) amongst ancient writers, it should
