RE: "West of Eden" (was Re: Dino fiction)

["Dan Lipkowitz" <lipkowit@midway.uchicago.edu>]

In message Tue, 7 Mar 1995 08:46:19 -0500,
  Tom Holtz <tholtz@geochange.er.usgs.gov>  writes:

> This series failed on several levels.  Most importantly, the Yilane' (the
> sapient reptiles) were NOT descended from dinosaurs: in the appendix, it
> says that they are the descendants of mosasaurs, which are true lizards
> closely related to monitors and Gila monsters.  (Nevertheless, in
> appearence they are definitely based on Dale Russell's "dinosauroid").
>
> Furthermore, various other creatures in the book are either wild or
> genetically-altered creatures based on species long extinct (some by more
> than 200 million years!) before the K-T boundary: Protoceratops,
> Stegosaurus, and even Dimetrodon! [Although maybe Harrison will right a
> story about Yilane' scientists finding some preserved DNA in amber...]
>
> Not to be recommended for its science, but otherwise not too bad.

Okay, so I guess my memory was even hazier than I thought (not to mention
my evident knowledge of fauna at the time I read the books)! How I
could have failed to recall the mosasaur and Dimetrodon bits is quite
beyond me, though -- not to mention more than a tad embarrassing.

Thanks for the correction!

Dan
****

Dan Lipkowitz
lipkowit@midway.uchicago.edu