Fossils are the mineralized remains of once‑living organisms, and throughout the ages they have inspired countless myths. Below we explore ten quirky pieces fossil folklore that show how ancient peoples turned stone remnants into magical stories.
10 Toadstones
Why These Pieces Fossil Capture Imagination
Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.
– “As You Like It” by William Shakespeare
Round, brownish stones called Bufonite have been prized as gems for centuries. Their name comes from the Latin bufo, meaning “toad,” because medieval folk believed they were the precious jewels lodged in a toad’s skull. In the logic of sympathetic magic—like cures like—people thought that toads’ toxicity meant the stones could guard against poison.
In reality, toads never have stones in their heads. Those “toadstones” are actually the rounded teeth of an extinct fish genus, Lepidotes. Believers who suspected poisoning would even swallow a toadstone to harness its power, and because the stones were valuable, they were carefully recovered from chamber pots, washed, and reused.
9 Thunderbolts
Belemnites were squid‑like cephalopods that lived millions of years ago. When they died, only their internal, bullet‑shaped rostrum—essentially a hard, cylindrical core—remained, littering fossil beds worldwide.
Because of their uncanny shape, people imagined all sorts of fanciful origins: elf candles, St. Peter’s fingers, and, most famously, the remnants of lightning strikes. Known as thunderbolts, thunderstones, or thunder‑arrows, they were believed to possess protective powers against storms. In the Netherlands, belemnite fossils were even nailed to rooftops to keep lightning at bay before the lightning rod was invented.
8 Angel Money
Nummulites are the fossilized shells of large, single‑celled protozoans that look like tiny coins or lentils. When the Greek geographer Strabo toured the Egyptian pyramids, he was shown these coin‑shaped fossils and told they were the food remnants given to the slaves who built the monuments.
Because the fossils often appear as round, coin‑like discs, they earned names such as angel money, St. Peter’s money, or Ladislaus’s pennies. The term “nummulite” itself derives from the Latin nummulus, meaning “little coin.”
7 Snake Eggs
Sea urchins still roam the oceans today, and their skeletons are covered in spines. After death, the spines fall off, leaving a smooth ball with a five‑pointed star pattern.
Ancient observers mistook these fossilized balls for “snake eggs.” Pliny the Elder called them ovum anguinum, literally “snake eggs.” In the British Isles, folklore claimed the eggs formed from the froth of mating snakes. Legend said that if you could snatch one without letting it touch the ground and then escape the angry snakes by crossing water, the egg would protect you from poison.
6 Tongue Stones
Sharks have skeletons made of cartilage, which rarely fossilizes, but their teeth do. Massive ancient sharks such as Megalodon left teeth the size and shape of a tongue, earning the moniker glossopetrae, or “tongue stones.”
Folklore claimed these stones could neutralize poison when dipped into a drink, or that pressing a tongue stone against a snake bite would cure the wound. Some even believed the stones could reproduce, pointing to the small off‑shoots on shark teeth as “young tongue stones” budding from a parent.
These fossils played a pivotal role in the birth of paleontology. In 1666, Italian scientist Nicolaus Steno dissected a huge shark and recognized that the so‑called tongue stones were actually shark teeth, bridging myth and science.
5 Vishnu’s Chakras
Ammonites are among the most recognizable fossils, their spiral shells resembling tiny nautiluses. In the Gandaki River of Nepal, certain ammonites—called Saligrama or “Shaligrams”—are revered as sacred objects.
These fossils are thought to mirror Vishnu’s Sudarshana Chakra, the spiked disc weapon the deity wields. The most prized shaligrams are those where only the edge of the fossil peeks from the surrounding stone, giving the impression of a divine disc.
Shaligrams are kept in many Hindu temples, used in prayers, and even placed in water to cleanse sins. Touching one is considered an act of devotion.
4 St. Hilda’s Snakes
Whitby, a coastal town in northern England, is littered with ammonite fossils—so much so that they appear on the town’s coat of arms. The shape of these fossils inspired a local legend.
According to seventh‑century lore, St. Hilda wanted to build an abbey, but the site was infested with adders. Miraculously, she hurled the snakes off a cliff, turning them to stone. The resulting stone fossils became known locally as “snakestones.”
Enterprising locals even carved a snake’s head onto the end of an ammonite and sold the trinket to curious visitors.
3 Devil’s Footprints
In Italy, a series of ancient footprints known as Ciampate del Diavolo—”the Devil’s Footprints”—were discovered in volcanic ash. The ash, deposited 385,000 to 325,000 years ago, preserved the tracks of a human‑like species.
Local folklore assumed only a devil could have walked on such hot ash, giving the site its ominous name. Scientific analysis in 2003 confirmed the prints belong to the oldest‑known human species footprints in the region.
2 Dinosaur Footprints
Dinosaur tracks have fascinated observers for centuries, and cultures worldwide wove them into myth. In ancient Greece, the three‑toed tracks were attributed to heroes like Herakles. Native American tribes saw them as the footprints of giant legendary birds, while Chinese folklore linked them to dragons.
Research in China identified four main strands of interpretation: theropod tracks became “golden or heavenly chickens,” large herbivore prints were likened to rhinos, some tracks were mistaken for plant leaves, and others were simply regarded as the steps of gods.
Because stone footprints endure for eons, they continually reinforce local legends across generations.
1 Griffins
The griffin—a creature with a lion’s body and an eagle’s head—has haunted imagination for millennia. In the Gobi Desert, the skull of the dinosaur Protoceratops resembles a massive eagle head perched on a four‑legged body.
Scholars suggest that ancient travelers who uncovered these skulls combined them with other bones to fashion the legendary griffin. The detached skull, with its beaked jaws and crest, could easily become the “eagle head” of the mythic beast.