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Knowledge of paleontology and the early periods of life on our planet was not exactly the forte of medieval education, much less of illiterate commoners. According to the Bible, the world was created in seven days which simply left no room for the epochs of prehistory.
Therefore, even the occasional rare finds of fossil remains of prehistoric life were attributed more to mythical creatures: dragons, basilisks, griffins and wyverns.
Several references to the discovery of dragon bonessurvive from the Middle Ages. Sometimes they were the remains of real dinosaurs, sometimes they were imported bones of exotic animals unfamiliar to people in this region.
Crocodiles were particularly popular at the time because of their appearance, and one of them even entered the iconography as the dragon that St. George was said to have fought.
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