When legend, history and science rhyme: Hannibal’s war elephants as an explanation to large vertebrate skeletons found in Italy

The actual nature of large vertebrate bones found in sedimentary deposits was a intriguing, debated and unanswered issues until the beginning of the nineteenth century. The fossil bones were interpreted in a number of fantastic ways, e.g. as remains of mythological giants, or bones of dragons killed by saints. These unrealistic notions progressively waned as the scientific advance in comparative anatomy allowed to a correct identification of the...