Some of these are pretty wild. Makes me wonder if similar mischaracterized/illustrated of animal depictions were the source for the belief in dragons and other monsters
I’ve heard that the idea of dragons sleeping in caves arose because cave bears lived in well, caves throughout Europe and it’s quite possible their skeletons would be mistaken for a dragons.
I convinced myself that Mushu on the Ishtar gat must be a horse because horses are said to have come from the north and mare, a Germanic-Celtic isogloss would somewhat match the description if rhotacism was involved. Then I went on about Amazons and Mars just because their origin may be uncertain. So no, here be dragons.
The domestication of the horse keeps being challenged anyhow.
