Testing Theories About Monsters: teacher key

Dragons and Mythical Creatures, grade 10 edition, written for 10th grade. How scholars weigh ideas about where monsters of legend came from: word histories, fossils, tusks, sea creatures and a real lizard whose name came from rumors.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. Why could Komodo dragons not have inspired old European dragons?
   • They lived only in Wales
   • Europeans did not find them until 1910 (answer)
   • They were too small to notice
2. What did a 2009 study find in the Komodo dragon's jaw?
   • Germ pouches
   • Extra teeth
   • Venom glands (answer)
3. What was a bestiary never meant to be?
   • A science book (answer)
   • A book of animals
   • A medieval book
4. What does Adrienne Mayor argue helped shape the griffin story?
   • A trip to Wales
   • A wall painting of lions
   • Scythian miners seeing dinosaur bones (answer)
5. What is a narwhal's tusk?
   • A solid bone horn
   • An elongated tooth filled with nerves (answer)
   • A hardened fin
6. What did Columbus most likely see when he wrote of mermaids?
   • Manatees (answer)
   • Seals dressed as sirens
   • Giant squid

Words

• bestiary: old animal book
• serrated: saw-edged
• constellation: star pattern
• elongated: stretched out
• scavenge: eat leftovers