As Mayor shows, the Greeks and Romans were well aware that a different breed 
  of creatures once inhabited their lands. They frequently encountered the 
  fossilized bones of these primeval beings, and they developed sophisticated 
  concepts to explain the fossil evidence, concepts that were expressed in 
  mythological stories. . . .

  Like their modern counterparts, the ancient fossil hunters collected and 
  measured impressive petrified remains and displayed them in temples and 
  museums; they attempted to reconstruct the appearance of these prehistoric 
  creatures and to explain their extinction. . . .