The science of going out and digging up bones has been a field of study since about the mid-1800's, when people started finding bones of rather large creatures. From these, speculations of our past, and the world's past have been tossed around.
Anyway, these bones have been put together to give us the picture of what things looked like in the past. But, along with the discovery of thes bones has come other discoveries.
Sea going peoples in the logs back in the 1400 and 1500's discovered these same creatures alive. One was caught just off the coast of Japan. Many explorers have written down their close encounters with these creatures.
The Epic of Gilgamesh goes even farther, with Gilgamesh (who was a real person) fighting one of these creatures and killing it.
The descriptions of these great creatures left in these peoples writings are incredibly accurate with what has been found. And mind you, all of these were written before people went out to dig up bones and speculate.
Of course, this doesn't fit in with eveolution in that these people have claimed to have seen dinosaurs, and dinosaurs supposedly were killed off before the first man ever arrived. Now I as you, what would you believe: speculation, or written records of firsthand accounts that say something very much different?
<><