DINOSAURS TO DRAGONS

Wide-ranging reflections on the legends and possible real origins of fantastical beasts and beings.

Encarnación’s page-filling views of swooping dragons, leaping bunyips, and other mythological creatures add dramatic notes to Shreeve’s profiles and speculations, while accompanying arrays of smaller photos, paleontological reconstructions, and old works of art provide unusual depth of field. Her first entry, for example, focuses on griffins: The author starts out by inviting readers to imagine an ancient Scythian horsewoman coming upon a big, beaked skull on a central Asian ridge; her attempts to make sense of the fossil might have given rise to the myth of a half-lion, half-eagle creature. From there, the author goes on to describe modern dinosaur discoveries in the Gobi, griffins in legend as well as art and literature up to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, whether griffins could hypothetically fly (considering their weight-to-wingspan ratios), and what we know from archaeological remains about the place of women (“The real Amazons”) in Scythian culture. Other entries offer similarly wide-angled overviews for subjects ranging from various cultures’ versions of mermaids and fairies to the “ship-sinking, sailor-munching” kraken. “Could there be grains of truth at the hearts of these legends?” The rare mix of lore and science will certainly leave readers in a thoughtful mood.

STEAM-y fare for both students of science and fans of myth.