I never thought I’d be doing a #FossilFriday post about Greece (shoutout to the Field Museum for the hashtag!), but I just came across some pictures of Megalopoli, a small town and site of an even bigger ancient city in Arcadia, smack in the middle of the Peloponnese. Fun fact: the ancient city was called Megalopolis, which literally means “large city,” not unlike the first dinosaur ever scientifically discovered and named (Megalosaurus for, you guessed it, large lizard!). Anyway, in light of all this dinosaur talk, I was very quickly reminded of how the ancients of old Megalopolis believed that the surrounding plains were the site of a great battle between Zeus and the Titans, thanks to the all of the prehistoric fossils and smoldering coal deposits in the area. The Greek myths really are awesome—it’s amazing to think of the stories and answers the ancients created to explain what must have seemed like the inexplicable. So next time you think about Mt. Olympus or the Greek myths, remember that the god of lightning and thunder isn’t really that far away!
(photo/Roman Klementschitz)
