Testing the Monster Theories: teacher key

Dragons and Mythical Creatures, grade 12 edition, written for 12th grade and up. How historians, paleontologists and folklorists weigh evidence for where dragon, griffin, kraken and unicorn stories came from, and which explanations hold up, remain debated or fail.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. According to modern scholars, why is the link between dragon bones in old Chinese medicine and fossils called a hypothesis and not a proven fact?
   • It has been proved for every dragon bone found
   • It is unclear what the ancient writers meant by the term dragon bones (answer)
   • No fossils have ever been found in China
2. What reasons did the paleontologist Mark Witton give for arguing that the Protoceratops-griffin idea fails?
   • It is proved by gold found at the fossil sites
   • Griffins never appeared in Near Eastern art
   • It fails because griffins appear in art much earlier and Protoceratops lacks lion-like feet or claws (answer)
3. How did scientists change their explanation of the way a Komodo dragon's bite harms its prey?
   • A 2009 study found venom glands in the jaw (answer)
   • Scientists proved germs were the only cause
   • Scientists decided the animal has no teeth at all
4. According to researcher Jess Nevins, where did the fiery breath of dragons in stories first come from?
   • It described Komodo dragons living in Indonesia
   • It was written by Isidore of Seville in the 600s
   • Fiery breath was an innovation of its made-up tales of Alexander the Great (answer)
5. Why do historians accept that narwhal tusks sometimes passed as unicorn horns?
   • Unicorns were found alive on the shores of Greenland
   • Buyers in Europe took the tusks for unicorn horns and paid very high prices (answer)
   • Narwhal tusks were made of solid gold
6. What does the folklore professor Peter Dendle say about the creatures that cryptozoologists actually end up finding?
   • Never the ones cryptozoologists were looking for (answer)
   • Always the monsters named in old stories
   • Proof that dragons once lived in the wild

Words

• bestiary: animal book
• hypothesis: testable idea
• manuscript: handwritten book
• cryptozoology: monster hunting
• serrated: saw-edged
• totem: clan animal symbol