Book Question and a Movie

[MariusRomanus@aol.com]

Not dinosaur related.... But, just out of curiosity, do any of ya know a good 
book out there that I can get my hands on that deals with creodonts? I'm 
looking for really good photos and such of skeletons and etc.

I seem to have gotten myself on a kick dealing with these nasties because of a 
movie that was out last year called "Brotherhood of the Wolf"... You might get 
a kick out of watching that movie. It's been on DVD for some time now. In the 
theaters it was subtitled, but the DVD is dubbed in English. (It's a French 
film). I'm surprised that the dubbing is as good as it is. Usually they are 
awful. 

Anyway, the movie is a spin on a series of strange animal attacks that took 
place in the 1700's in the French contryside. You can still find the 
documentation on the insidents. Pretty freakie if you ask me. Basically, the 
movie takes on hell of an interesting plot in which a hunter who traveled to 
Africa came across a "strange beast" and brought it back to France. There, it 
had cubs, the strongest one of which he kept, training it to be a brutal 
killer. In time, it is unleashed on the French countryside. You'll have to 
watch the movie to find out why. It's a neat and pretty complex plot.

They never come out and say what the Beast is. But, when you see it, those who 
know a bit about prehistoric mammals are going to immediately recognize what it 
is. (Looks like a Haeyenodon to me. Andrewsarchus was much bigger than this 
thing. http://www.bbc.co.uk/beasts/evidence/prog3/page6.shtml) Lions and Tigers 
and Bears... Who cares. They can't hold a candle to creodonts. Real beasts of 
nightmares, let me tell you. 

Personally, I loved the idea of the movie. It has a nice romantic feel to it. 
Animals have the habit of surviving late, especially predators. As long as they 
can still obtain food and avoid becoming wiped out via disease, they usually 
hang on, even if it is only by a thread. Hey, the way I look at it, the Romans 
saw animals that are no longer here (some of which they exterminated personally 
due to their games), and you just know that during the 1700s, these British, 
French, Spanish, etc, Naturalists that were running around all over the world 
collecting as many specimens as they possibly could, also came across things 
which were on their way out at the time. So, you never know.

So anyway, if any of you know of any good books, please, let me know.

Thanks
Kris