Editing Protoceratops (section)

==Cultural significance==
===Possible Influence on Griffin Legend===
The folklorist and historian of science [[Adrienne Mayor]] of [[Stanford University]] has suggested that the exquisitely preserved fossil skeletons of ''Protoceratops'', ''[[Psittacosaurus]]'' and other beaked dinosaurs, found by ancient [[Scythian]] nomads who mined gold in the [[Tian Shan]] and [[Altai Mountains]] of Central Asia, may have played a role in the image of the mythical creature known as the [[griffin]]. Griffins were described as wolf- or lion-sized quadrupeds with large claws and a raptor-bird-like beak; they laid their eggs in nests on the ground.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Mayor|first1=A.|date=1994|title=Guardians of the Gold|journal=Archaeology|volume=47|issue=6|pages=53–58}}</ref>

Dodson in 1996 pointed out Greek writers began describing the griffin around 675 B.C., at the time the first Greek writings about Scythia nomads appeared, although contact with Scythian nomads would have occurred earlier, in the Bronze Age when Greeks imported tin from Afghanistan, transported on the caravan routes across the Gobi and other deserts. Griffins were described as "guarding" the gold deposits in the arid hills and red sandstone formations of the wilderness below the Tien Shan and Altai mountains. The region of [[Mongolia]] and China, where many ''Protoceratops'' and other dinosaur fossils are found, is rich in placer gold runoff from the neighboring mountains, lending some credence to the theory that these fossils played a role in griffin descriptions of the seventh century BC to Roman times.<ref name=Dodson1996>{{cite book|last1=Dodson|first1=P.|year=1996|title=The Horned Dinosaurs|url=https://archive.org/details/horneddinosaursn00dods_0|url-access=registration|publisher=Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey|pages=[https://archive.org/details/horneddinosaursn00dods_0/page/200 200–234]|isbn=978-0-691-05900-6}}</ref>

Mayor in 2001 and 2011 refined the hypothesis of ''Protoceratops'' as an influence on the griffin legend by analyzing written details and artistic imagery. She also cited some other Greek histories about mythological creatures may have been influenced by fossil discoveries by ancient people, such as [[cyclopes]] and [[Giants (Greek mythology)|giants]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Mayor|first1=A.|year=2000|title=The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times|edition=1st|publisher=Princeton University Press|location=Princeton, New Jersey|pages=1–384|jstor=j.ctt7s6mm|isbn=978-0-691-05863-4}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Mayor|first1=A.|year=2011|title=The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times|edition=2nd|publisher=Princeton University Press|location=Princeton, New Jersey|pages=1−400|isbn=978-0-691-15013-0}}</ref>

In 2016 this hypothesis was criticized by the British paleontologist and [[paleoart]]ist [[Mark P. Witton]], as it ignores pre-Greek "griffin art and accounts." (No written accounts of griffins are known before ca 675 BC, when the word gryps/griffin is first attested.) Witton goes on to point out that the wings of traditional griffins are positioned above the shoulder blades, not behind the neck as the frills of ''Protoceratops'', that the bodies of griffins much more closely resemble the bodies of modern big cats than they do those of ''Protoceratops'', and that the gold deposits of central Asia occur hundreds of kilometers from the known ''Protoceratops'' fossil remains, among many other inconsistencies. It is simpler, he argues, to understand the griffin as a mythical combination of well-known extant animal species than as an ancient misunderstanding of fossilized collections of bones.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Witton |first1=M. P. |date=4 April 2016 |title=Why Protoceratops almost certainly wasn't the inspiration for the griffin legend |url=http://markwitton-com.blogspot.com/2016/04/why-protoceratops-almost-certainly.html |website=Mark Witton Blog |publisher=Blogger}}</ref> Witton later co-published with Richard Hing a 2024 paper expanding on his points regarding the tenuous link between griffins and ''Protoceratops''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Witton |first1=Mark P. |last2=Hing |first2=Richard A. |date=20 June 2024 |title=Did the horned dinosaur Protoceratops inspire the griffin? |journal=Interdisciplinary Science Reviews |volume=49 |issue=3–4 |pages=363–388 |language=en |doi=10.1177/03080188241255543 |issn=0308-0188|doi-access=free |bibcode=2024ISRv...49..363W }}</ref>

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px">
File:Wenceslas Hollar - A griffin (cleaned background).jpg|A traditional depiction of the [[griffin]]
File:Hyperborean-gryphon-persepolis-protoceratops-psittacosaurus-skeletons.jpg|[[Adrienne Mayor]] has speculated that the discovery of ''Protoceratops'' fossils may have inspired or influenced stories of griffins
</gallery>