ERB and fossil vertebrates

["James Farlow" <farlow@ipfw.edu>]

I read all of Burroughs' paleo-oriented books as a kid.  My favorite was the 
Land That Time Forgot series, with its truly wild take on ontogeny 
recapitulating phylogeny.  IMHO, a serious, high-budget film treatment of that 
series of books, with Wieroos, oviparous ladies, and O recapitulating P as part 
of the plot,  would make a landmark SF movie or movies.  With Doyle's Lost 
World having been done several times, and Jurassic Park becoming a cottage 
industry, you'd think somebody would try a really different prehistoric critter 
project--and LTTF done faithfully to Burroughs would be just the ticket.  It 
might even make us forget that awful Doug McClure turkey.

What struck me as a kid was how Burroughs seemed far more interested in 
prehistoric mammals and pterodactyls than in dinosaurs.  And to my mind, he 
showed remarkably little interest in large carnivorous dinosaurs.  Of course, 
that may  simply reflect my own childhood (and adult) biases.

Jim Farlow