Harrison's Yilane'

[Thomas_R_HOLTZ@umail.umd.edu (th81)]

If I rember correctly, Harry Harrison's Yilane' are in fact descendants of
the mosasaurs (check the appendicies of the first Eden book).  As such, they
are not dinosaurs at all, but honest-to-goodness lizards!  The Mosasauridae,
as many of you know, were true lizards, closely related to monitors and Gila
monsters.  Personally, I like the sapient dinosaurs in Barry Longyear's
"Homecoming" and Sawyer's dinosaur trilogy Farseerer, Fossil Hunter, and
[something else I can't remember at the moment] much better than Harrison's
critters.  Longyear and Sawyer did their work with regards to modern
dinosaur research, and Longyear's creature's (descended from troodontids,
with horizontal spines) I find particularly reasonable anatomically.

Thomas R. HOLTZ
Vertebrate Paleontologist, Dept. of Geology
Email:Thomas_R_HOLTZ@umail.umd.edu (th81)
Phone:301-405-4084