page_title: Dinosaurs, Myths and Monsters
hierarchical_section_title: Dinosaurs, Myths and Monsters
caption_attribution_description: scull of a dwarf elephant on display in Hellabrunn zoo of Munich, Germany
context_page_description: Dinosaurs, Myths and Monsters is a 2011 British documentary film produced by the BBC. The film premiered on BBC Four on 14 September 2011, and is presented and written by popular historian Tom Holland. Jamie Muir served as the programme's director and producer. The duration of the film is an hour.
  In the spirit of Adrienne Mayor's ground-breaking studies of 2000 and 2005, the documentary explores how fossils may have influenced the mythologies of different cultures, including the Native Americans and the ancient Greeks. Mayor speculated that fossils could have led to mythological depictions of the thunderbird, the giant bird of Native American mythology, and the Cyclopes, the one-eyed giants of Greek and Roman mythology. The concept of the Cyclopes may have been derived from Greek encounters with elephant skulls. The Greeks, unfamiliar with living elephants, could have misinterpreted the skull's nose cavity as a single eye socket.
  The film was produced alongside three other dinosaur programmes: Planet Dinosaur, How to Build a Dinosaur, and Survivors. All four programmes were commissioned by Kim Shillinglaw, the BBC's commissioning editor for Science and Natural History.
context_section_description: Dinosaurs, Myths and Monsters is a 2011 British documentary film produced by the BBC. The film premiered on BBC Four on 14 September 2011, and is presented and written by popular historian Tom Holland. Jamie Muir served as the programme's director and producer. The duration of the film is an hour.
  In the spirit of Adrienne Mayor's ground-breaking studies of 2000 and 2005, the documentary explores how fossils may have influenced the mythologies of different cultures, including the Native Americans and the ancient Greeks. Mayor speculated that fossils could have led to mythological depictions of the thunderbird, the giant bird of Native American mythology, and the Cyclopes, the one-eyed giants of Greek and Roman mythology. The concept of the Cyclopes may have been derived from Greek encounters with elephant skulls. The Greeks, unfamiliar with living elephants, could have misinterpreted the skull's nose cavity as a single eye socket.
  The film was produced alongside three other dinosaur programmes: Planet Dinosaur, How to Build a Dinosaur, and Survivors. All four programmes were commissioned by Kim Shillinglaw, the BBC's commissioning editor for Science and Natural History.
caption: Skull of a dwarf elephant displayed in the zoo of Munich, Germany.
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