In addition to archeology, ancient Greeks (and undoubtably others) also did paleontology:

  Like their modern counterparts, the ancient fossil hunters collected and 
  measured impressive petrified remains and displayed them in temples and 
  museums; they attempted to reconstruct the appearance of these prehistoric 
  creatures and to explain their extinction. Long thought to be fantasy, the 
  remarkably detailed and perceptive Greek and Roman accounts of giant bone 
  finds were actually based on solid paleontological facts. By reading these 
  neglected narratives for the first time in the light of modern scientific 
  discoveries, Adrienne Mayor illuminates a lost world of ancient paleontology.