Theropod dinosaur tracks along Potash Road in Moab, Utah. Tracks like these have inspired myths about giant birds at locations all over the world. Photo by the author.
One such powerful figure, according to myths about footprints found in Changdu County, Tibet, was the Mountain Deity. During the construction of a highway through the area in 1999, construction crews found several large footprints Local villagers believed that all the noise had disturbed a god who dwelt in the mountains, and when the deity fled, it left the footprints in stone. Though not everyone agrees. Others think that the footprints represent King Gesar, a warrior featured in an epic poem about Tibet’s history. In reality, the tracks are the fore- and hindfoot impressions of a sauropod dinosaur. The shape of the tracks and their arrangement roughly resemble a large human footprint, and so the legendary explanation was born. Indeed, not all myths about dinosaur remains are ancient. In places where people don’t know about dinosaurs or paleontology, fantastic stories are still employed to explain the origin of fossils.
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