ERB's Pellucidarian Creatures (Hollow Earth = Pellucidar)
Mar 18, 2015 10:40:24 GMT -5
tetramorph, Necromancer, and 4 more like this
Post by The Archivist on Mar 18, 2015 10:40:24 GMT -5
Pellucidarian Creatures
Ant Bear - A colossal edentate mammal, which feed on the giant ants, possibly a relative of Dyryth. No such animal ever existed on the surface.
Antelope - There innumerable species within Pellucidar. Burroughs describes the most beautiful in At the Earth’s Core, as having backward spiraling horns, and a gorgeous striped coat, patterned in the manner of the zebra.
Ape-Men - These are mostly akin to monkeys than apes, being humanoid in form, but sporting long pendulous prehensile tails. They hairless, with glossy black skins. They somewhat resemble the tailed races of the lost land of Pal-ul-don, on the surface. They live high in treetop villages (arboreal), and sometimes take humans as captive.
Archaeopteryx - A primitive “dinosaur-bird” of the Lower Jurassic, having teeth, and hooked-claws on its wings.
Azarians - primitive man-eating giants
Azdyryth - this term refer to a giant marine reptile of Pellucidar’s oceans. Its name translates to “sea sloth” or “sea megatherium”. The Azdyryth is most accurately identified with the ichthyosaurus, a great fish-like marine lizard, with mighty, elongated jaws bristling with teeth.
Aztarag - Another ferocious marine denizen, this reptile’s surface counterpart has not been officially recognized.
Beast-Men (Brute-Men)- The beast men are a savage and yet peaceful, vegetarian, race of gorilla-like farmers that inhabit the island named Indiana by Innes. Their faces resemble a cross between a sheep and a gorilla. They live a peaceful existence on the island under chiefdom of Gr-gr-gr. They harm only intruders they feel threatened by, and only want to be left alone.
Codon - The giant dire wolf of the Pleistocene. These pony –sized wolves are huge enough to overtake most prey single –handed, and only hunt the giant tandor in packs.
Coripies - The Coripies, or “Buried People”, are perhaps the most gruesome race to have evolved within Pellucidar. They are an underground race native to the island of Amicop, apparently descended from surface dwellers. They are humanoid in form, but lack any discernible facial features. They are totally blind, and skin covers their eyes, which roll grotesquely beneath the covering membrane. They have heavy fangs and webbed talons, with which they tear apart their prey. This usually consists of cavefish, toads and lizards, but they relish the flesh of other warm-bloods as a break from this.
Dimorphodon - Mere mention is made of this flying reptile, which Burroughs says is a “smaller cousin of the Thipdar”. Dimorphodon lived during the Triassic age, the first era of dinosaurs, on the surface, and was one of the more primitive pterosaurs
Dinotherium - This is a huge elephantine creature with mighty downward curving tusks, which lived on the earths’ surface during the Miocene. Its Pellucidaran name is unknown.
Dyal - The phorohacas, huge predatory bird of Miocene S. America that was over ten feet tall, with a mighty eagle-hooked bill, and powerful legs that made it near impossible to outrun. The Dyal is used as steed by some Pellucidaran tribes, even though it is ferocious and difficult to train.
Dyrodor – The huge plated monster of Pellucidar. It most closely resembles the stegosaurus in appearance however; it is a carnivore and has an extraordinary gliding ability. The huge, cartilaginous plates sported by the reptile enable it to become airborne if it leaps off a high precipice.
Dyryth - the giant ground sloth, a huge, shaggy beast the size of an elephant. It has a short trunk not unlike that of a tapir.
Ganaks - The Ganaks, or Bison-men, are a race of humanoid bovines (horned bison men). Like their ancestors, they are herbivorous, though the sometimes capture human for their cruel sacrificial rites. They brew liquor called “dancing water” for use in these rituals.
Giant Ants - Gargantuan “prehistoric” ants are also native to the inner earth. They thrive in vast, underground colonies, and grow huge enough to carry off humans to feed their larvae. They are purely a Burroguhsian invention.
Gorbuses - The Gorbuses are a human-like race with white hair, milky-white skin, and large pink eyes with red albino pupils. They also sport tusk-like fangs with curve up from their lower jaws. They are a cannibalistic race that inhabits the Forest of Death. It is because of the Gorbus that the forest bears this name, as they capture any humans who venture within. The Gorbus also share some mysterious tie with the surface world. They suffer from visions of a previous life in which they have all killed something, and have fleeting visions that could only pertain to life outside Pellucidar, but the origins of this mysterious race are never revealed.
Gorobor - giant lizard-like reptiles that serve as steeds to the reptilian
Horibs. They are as lightening-fast as their smaller counterparts, and fastest thing within the inner earth. They are similar to the herbivorous cotlyosaurs of the lower Permian.
Gyor - the triceratops of the inner earth. This beast is possessed of a terrible temper even though it is an herbivore. The gyors roam the mighty plain known as the Gyor Cors in vast herds.
Horibs - Horibs, called lizard-men or snake- men, are a grotesque race of humanoid reptilians descended from lizards or lizard-like reptiles. They are cold-blooded, and never cease to grow while living. One specimen is cited as being well over seven feet tall. Horibs capture humans and other warm-bloods as food for their newly hatched young. Horibs dwell in vast swamps, and lay their eggs in mud. They are humanoid in form with heads resembling a snakes or lizards, and sport a pair of short horns. Eerily, they speak the same tongue as gilaks, the humans of Pellucidar with a sibilant hiss. Their mounts are the lizard-like gorobors, the swiftest beast in the inner earth. The relish the flesh of the Gyor or triceratops, as a delicacy.
Hydrophidian - This is one last reptilian monster know to be indigenous to Pellucidar’s seas. This is a serpentine creature and is merely referred to as a “hydrophidian”. No scientific or Pellucidaran term is used to identify it. It is snake-like in from, with small horn-like protuberances over each eye, a jetting, forked tongue, and goggling eyes. It may or may not have had a surface counterpart in prehistoric times.
Hyena Spelea - This is the giant cave hyena of ice age Europe, which grew larger than a modern African lion. The native name for this animal is unknown.
Jalok - are hyeanodons of the Eocene, dog-like carnivores found throughout the inner earth. Burroughs describes them as ancestral to modern canines.
Korsars - descended from surface world pirates
Lidi - The giant diplodocus of Pellucidar, a giant sauropod dinosaur related to the better-known brontosaurus. Burroughs describes it as a plains-dwelling animal. The human tribes of thuria have learned to domesticate the plains lidi as formidable war-mounts.
Mahar - The Mahars are the formally dominant race within the hollow earth. They are super-intelligent pterosaurs descended from rhamphorynchus of the Jurassic. On the surface, the rhamphorynchus grew to no larger than a crow, and were unintelligent. However, due to some freak of Pellucidar’s evolutionary chain, here they developed vast intellect and stupefying mental powers. Mahars are totally deaf, and communicate telepathically among one another, and to their servants the sagoths. They are also deaf, but have developed a form of “musical” entertainment based on motion. They often use a related species, the giant Thipdars, as bloodhounds to chase down escaped slaves, and guard animals. They use humans (gilaks) for their scientific experiments, and also to serve as Mahar food, though eating any kind of mammal is considered taboo, and not done by “respectable” members of the species. Humans intended to serve this purpose are taken to a Mahar “temple”, where they are imprisoned on islands surrounded by water, not unlike an aquatic zoo exhibit. When a mahr singles out a human as victim, she fastens her gaze on him/her, and lures the mesmerized victim into the water to be devoured. Mahars, unlike their Jurassic ancestors are able not only to fly but also to swim as well as a seal. Mahars are also a race entirely made up of females. Somewhere along their journey to dominance, Mahr scientists learned to fertilize their eggs chemically, eliminating the need for males. The details of the method of procreation are not given in the series.
Maj - The mighty mastodon of Pellucidar, a beast somewhat smaller than the tandor, with a flat head rather than a high-domed skull.
Mammoth Men – a human tribe who train and ride the tandor as war mounts.
Orthopi - The diminutive ancestor of the modern horse, known to science as the eohippus or hyracotherium. It lived during the Eocene period, shortly after the demise of the dinosaurs.
Ryth - the giant cave-bear, this shaggy monster is long-limbed, fast and a strict flesh eater. The lowland ryths are about the size of an ox and the ones living in Pellucidar’s mountains are white-furred and gigantic, being as large as an elephant.
Saber-Tooth Men - These are similar to the Ape-Men, and possibly related to them, being also hairless and black-skinned, and with long prehensile tails. These, however, often capture and devour any gilaks they capture. Unlike the Ape-Men, Saber-tooths sport a pair of saber-fangs extending from their upper jaw.
Saber-toothed Tigers –
Sadok - referred to as the giant “two-horned” rhinoceros. The Burroughs Encyclopedia identifies the Sadok with the brontotherium, a huge titanothere of the Oligocne. Male members of this species had a single horn that branched into a Y shape. However, there was another mammal of the late Eocene that is a possible candidate. This is the mighty arsinotherium of lower Egypt. This beast also resembled a large rhinoceros, but sported two massive horns, not one in front of the other as in its modern counterparts, but side by side on its broad snout.
Sagoths - Sagoths are a race of savage gorilla-men. They serve as slavers to the Mahars and they speak the same language as Tarzan's apes
Sithic - is a labyrinthodon, a giant, carnivorous amphibian of monstrous size, it inhabited the outer crust during the Permian and Triassic eras. Actually, huge labyrinthodon amphibians continued to linger on through the age of dinosaurs in the southern polar swamps. However, these later animals, such as Koolasuchus, had jaws that were less crocodile-like than their ancestors. The sithic, sporting a toad-like body, and mighty crocodilian-style jaws, most resembles the original labyrinthodon. The true labyrinthodon, both described by Burroughs, and by paleontologists, had a wet, moist, pulpy hide, like any other amphibian.
Snakes - Snakes of overwhelming proportions infest the Phelian swamp, where they apparently exist at the pinnacle of the food chain. Some grow large enough to swallow adult dinosaurs of good-sized species. No serpent of the outer crust is known to have attained such colossal proportions. Though giant serpents did exist during the Cretaceous, the largest was only a little bigger than the largest living snake today, the anaconda.
Ta-ho - This is the mighty cave-lion of Pellucidar. Scientists believe that the cave lion of the ice age to be the largest cat that ever lived, bigger even than Smilodon Fatalis. One inner earth tribe has learned to domesticate the ta-ho as companions and hunting animal, as two other tribes have done with the jalok and the tarag, respectfully.
Ta-ho-az - The “sea-lion” of Pellucidar, a monster that, from the descriptions appears to be yet another species of plesiosaur, albeit one smaller, though no less ferocious than the tandoraz.
Tandor – the woolly mammoth of Pellucidar.
Tandoraz - this is the name given to the plesiosaur, the sea-mammoth of Pellucidar’s oceanic realms. It is describes as having a long neck, and a seal-like body. Actually, the name of the monsters above would translate roughly as “sea bear”, a name not precisely used by Burroughs himself. There existed on the outer surface several species of plesiosaur after all, the largest being the elasmosaurus, the species with which the tandoraz may be identified.
Tarag - the great saber-tooth tiger of Pellucidar is close to the size of a buffalo and their saber-fangs are about 18 inches long. It is striped with gold and the glossy black of anthracite coal. They are usually encountered alone, but will occasionally band into large packs of a hundred or more in order to attacks the largest of the Pellucidarian herbivores.
Thag - the huge bull aurochs of Pellucidar. Herds of aurochs ranged throughout the great broadleaf forests of Europe from the last ice age, up until early historical times. The last few died out with the coming of the industrial revolution.
Thipdar - is the gigantic pteranodon of the Cretaceous age, and the most feared predator of Pellucidar’s skies. One thing notable about thipars is that they are used as pets and guard animals by the Mahars, Pellucidar’s formerly dominant race. This may be because both Mahars and Thipdars are related, but pteranodons are still of animal intelligence within Pellucidar, and belong to the pteradactyl order of the pterasauia, rather than the rhamphorinchids, to which the Mahar belong. He describes the wingspan as about twenty-five feet with some whose wingspan measured fifty some feet.
Thipdars – the flying reptiles that guard the queen of the Mahars.
Tracodon - This is a huge, elephant sized herbivorous “duck-billed” dinosaur of the late Cretaceous. Though innumerable species of reptilian life make the Phelian Swamp their home, this animal is the only one given direct mention, as it is seen being devoured by one of the titanic serpents which infest the region. It is more correctly known to science as the anatosaurus. Like the dimophodon, it is not revealed what the native term for this beast is.
Trodon - This is an entirely fictitious monster, as Burroughs himself admits when he tells us that its restoration was never in any book, its skeleton never in any museum. Perhaps it is entirely Pellucidaran in origin, or perhaps it is one species whose surface counterpart will remain undiscovered. The trodon is somewhat pterosaurian, having a head that is “pterodactyl-like”, and mighty leathern wings. Its’ body, however, somewhat resembles a gigantic winged kangaroo, with powerful rear legs, and a massive tail. Its forearms are separate from the wings, and with them the troodon can easily grasp its prey. It also has a pouch with which it transports its victims (and perhaps its young, after they hatch?). Burroughs refers to the Trodon as a “giant marsupial reptile”, though technically this is impossible, since the marsupial reproductive system is strictly mammalian. The trodon paralyzes its victims’ nervous system with its barbed tongue. The victims are then left in the adult trodon’s rookery until the eggs hatch, and the young troodons devour their screaming victims alive.
Tylosaurus - This was one of the most feared predatory reptiles of the upper Cretaceous period. Burroughs does not relate the native term for this reptile, though it is possibly synonymous with the aztarag.
Xexots - a Bronze Age Civilization
Zarith - is the tyrannosaurus rex of Pellucidar, most dreaded and terrible of all terrestrial carnivores. The Pellucidaran t-rex is often misnamed in pastiches, and is called a dryath and a zabor in other places.
Ant Bear - A colossal edentate mammal, which feed on the giant ants, possibly a relative of Dyryth. No such animal ever existed on the surface.
Antelope - There innumerable species within Pellucidar. Burroughs describes the most beautiful in At the Earth’s Core, as having backward spiraling horns, and a gorgeous striped coat, patterned in the manner of the zebra.
Ape-Men - These are mostly akin to monkeys than apes, being humanoid in form, but sporting long pendulous prehensile tails. They hairless, with glossy black skins. They somewhat resemble the tailed races of the lost land of Pal-ul-don, on the surface. They live high in treetop villages (arboreal), and sometimes take humans as captive.
Archaeopteryx - A primitive “dinosaur-bird” of the Lower Jurassic, having teeth, and hooked-claws on its wings.
Azarians - primitive man-eating giants
Azdyryth - this term refer to a giant marine reptile of Pellucidar’s oceans. Its name translates to “sea sloth” or “sea megatherium”. The Azdyryth is most accurately identified with the ichthyosaurus, a great fish-like marine lizard, with mighty, elongated jaws bristling with teeth.
Aztarag - Another ferocious marine denizen, this reptile’s surface counterpart has not been officially recognized.
Beast-Men (Brute-Men)- The beast men are a savage and yet peaceful, vegetarian, race of gorilla-like farmers that inhabit the island named Indiana by Innes. Their faces resemble a cross between a sheep and a gorilla. They live a peaceful existence on the island under chiefdom of Gr-gr-gr. They harm only intruders they feel threatened by, and only want to be left alone.
Codon - The giant dire wolf of the Pleistocene. These pony –sized wolves are huge enough to overtake most prey single –handed, and only hunt the giant tandor in packs.
Coripies - The Coripies, or “Buried People”, are perhaps the most gruesome race to have evolved within Pellucidar. They are an underground race native to the island of Amicop, apparently descended from surface dwellers. They are humanoid in form, but lack any discernible facial features. They are totally blind, and skin covers their eyes, which roll grotesquely beneath the covering membrane. They have heavy fangs and webbed talons, with which they tear apart their prey. This usually consists of cavefish, toads and lizards, but they relish the flesh of other warm-bloods as a break from this.
Dimorphodon - Mere mention is made of this flying reptile, which Burroughs says is a “smaller cousin of the Thipdar”. Dimorphodon lived during the Triassic age, the first era of dinosaurs, on the surface, and was one of the more primitive pterosaurs
Dinotherium - This is a huge elephantine creature with mighty downward curving tusks, which lived on the earths’ surface during the Miocene. Its Pellucidaran name is unknown.
Dyal - The phorohacas, huge predatory bird of Miocene S. America that was over ten feet tall, with a mighty eagle-hooked bill, and powerful legs that made it near impossible to outrun. The Dyal is used as steed by some Pellucidaran tribes, even though it is ferocious and difficult to train.
Dyrodor – The huge plated monster of Pellucidar. It most closely resembles the stegosaurus in appearance however; it is a carnivore and has an extraordinary gliding ability. The huge, cartilaginous plates sported by the reptile enable it to become airborne if it leaps off a high precipice.
Dyryth - the giant ground sloth, a huge, shaggy beast the size of an elephant. It has a short trunk not unlike that of a tapir.
Ganaks - The Ganaks, or Bison-men, are a race of humanoid bovines (horned bison men). Like their ancestors, they are herbivorous, though the sometimes capture human for their cruel sacrificial rites. They brew liquor called “dancing water” for use in these rituals.
Giant Ants - Gargantuan “prehistoric” ants are also native to the inner earth. They thrive in vast, underground colonies, and grow huge enough to carry off humans to feed their larvae. They are purely a Burroguhsian invention.
Gorbuses - The Gorbuses are a human-like race with white hair, milky-white skin, and large pink eyes with red albino pupils. They also sport tusk-like fangs with curve up from their lower jaws. They are a cannibalistic race that inhabits the Forest of Death. It is because of the Gorbus that the forest bears this name, as they capture any humans who venture within. The Gorbus also share some mysterious tie with the surface world. They suffer from visions of a previous life in which they have all killed something, and have fleeting visions that could only pertain to life outside Pellucidar, but the origins of this mysterious race are never revealed.
Gorobor - giant lizard-like reptiles that serve as steeds to the reptilian
Horibs. They are as lightening-fast as their smaller counterparts, and fastest thing within the inner earth. They are similar to the herbivorous cotlyosaurs of the lower Permian.
Gyor - the triceratops of the inner earth. This beast is possessed of a terrible temper even though it is an herbivore. The gyors roam the mighty plain known as the Gyor Cors in vast herds.
Horibs - Horibs, called lizard-men or snake- men, are a grotesque race of humanoid reptilians descended from lizards or lizard-like reptiles. They are cold-blooded, and never cease to grow while living. One specimen is cited as being well over seven feet tall. Horibs capture humans and other warm-bloods as food for their newly hatched young. Horibs dwell in vast swamps, and lay their eggs in mud. They are humanoid in form with heads resembling a snakes or lizards, and sport a pair of short horns. Eerily, they speak the same tongue as gilaks, the humans of Pellucidar with a sibilant hiss. Their mounts are the lizard-like gorobors, the swiftest beast in the inner earth. The relish the flesh of the Gyor or triceratops, as a delicacy.
Hydrophidian - This is one last reptilian monster know to be indigenous to Pellucidar’s seas. This is a serpentine creature and is merely referred to as a “hydrophidian”. No scientific or Pellucidaran term is used to identify it. It is snake-like in from, with small horn-like protuberances over each eye, a jetting, forked tongue, and goggling eyes. It may or may not have had a surface counterpart in prehistoric times.
Hyena Spelea - This is the giant cave hyena of ice age Europe, which grew larger than a modern African lion. The native name for this animal is unknown.
Jalok - are hyeanodons of the Eocene, dog-like carnivores found throughout the inner earth. Burroughs describes them as ancestral to modern canines.
Korsars - descended from surface world pirates
Lidi - The giant diplodocus of Pellucidar, a giant sauropod dinosaur related to the better-known brontosaurus. Burroughs describes it as a plains-dwelling animal. The human tribes of thuria have learned to domesticate the plains lidi as formidable war-mounts.
Mahar - The Mahars are the formally dominant race within the hollow earth. They are super-intelligent pterosaurs descended from rhamphorynchus of the Jurassic. On the surface, the rhamphorynchus grew to no larger than a crow, and were unintelligent. However, due to some freak of Pellucidar’s evolutionary chain, here they developed vast intellect and stupefying mental powers. Mahars are totally deaf, and communicate telepathically among one another, and to their servants the sagoths. They are also deaf, but have developed a form of “musical” entertainment based on motion. They often use a related species, the giant Thipdars, as bloodhounds to chase down escaped slaves, and guard animals. They use humans (gilaks) for their scientific experiments, and also to serve as Mahar food, though eating any kind of mammal is considered taboo, and not done by “respectable” members of the species. Humans intended to serve this purpose are taken to a Mahar “temple”, where they are imprisoned on islands surrounded by water, not unlike an aquatic zoo exhibit. When a mahr singles out a human as victim, she fastens her gaze on him/her, and lures the mesmerized victim into the water to be devoured. Mahars, unlike their Jurassic ancestors are able not only to fly but also to swim as well as a seal. Mahars are also a race entirely made up of females. Somewhere along their journey to dominance, Mahr scientists learned to fertilize their eggs chemically, eliminating the need for males. The details of the method of procreation are not given in the series.
Maj - The mighty mastodon of Pellucidar, a beast somewhat smaller than the tandor, with a flat head rather than a high-domed skull.
Mammoth Men – a human tribe who train and ride the tandor as war mounts.
Orthopi - The diminutive ancestor of the modern horse, known to science as the eohippus or hyracotherium. It lived during the Eocene period, shortly after the demise of the dinosaurs.
Ryth - the giant cave-bear, this shaggy monster is long-limbed, fast and a strict flesh eater. The lowland ryths are about the size of an ox and the ones living in Pellucidar’s mountains are white-furred and gigantic, being as large as an elephant.
Saber-Tooth Men - These are similar to the Ape-Men, and possibly related to them, being also hairless and black-skinned, and with long prehensile tails. These, however, often capture and devour any gilaks they capture. Unlike the Ape-Men, Saber-tooths sport a pair of saber-fangs extending from their upper jaw.
Saber-toothed Tigers –
Sadok - referred to as the giant “two-horned” rhinoceros. The Burroughs Encyclopedia identifies the Sadok with the brontotherium, a huge titanothere of the Oligocne. Male members of this species had a single horn that branched into a Y shape. However, there was another mammal of the late Eocene that is a possible candidate. This is the mighty arsinotherium of lower Egypt. This beast also resembled a large rhinoceros, but sported two massive horns, not one in front of the other as in its modern counterparts, but side by side on its broad snout.
Sagoths - Sagoths are a race of savage gorilla-men. They serve as slavers to the Mahars and they speak the same language as Tarzan's apes
Sithic - is a labyrinthodon, a giant, carnivorous amphibian of monstrous size, it inhabited the outer crust during the Permian and Triassic eras. Actually, huge labyrinthodon amphibians continued to linger on through the age of dinosaurs in the southern polar swamps. However, these later animals, such as Koolasuchus, had jaws that were less crocodile-like than their ancestors. The sithic, sporting a toad-like body, and mighty crocodilian-style jaws, most resembles the original labyrinthodon. The true labyrinthodon, both described by Burroughs, and by paleontologists, had a wet, moist, pulpy hide, like any other amphibian.
Snakes - Snakes of overwhelming proportions infest the Phelian swamp, where they apparently exist at the pinnacle of the food chain. Some grow large enough to swallow adult dinosaurs of good-sized species. No serpent of the outer crust is known to have attained such colossal proportions. Though giant serpents did exist during the Cretaceous, the largest was only a little bigger than the largest living snake today, the anaconda.
Ta-ho - This is the mighty cave-lion of Pellucidar. Scientists believe that the cave lion of the ice age to be the largest cat that ever lived, bigger even than Smilodon Fatalis. One inner earth tribe has learned to domesticate the ta-ho as companions and hunting animal, as two other tribes have done with the jalok and the tarag, respectfully.
Ta-ho-az - The “sea-lion” of Pellucidar, a monster that, from the descriptions appears to be yet another species of plesiosaur, albeit one smaller, though no less ferocious than the tandoraz.
Tandor – the woolly mammoth of Pellucidar.
Tandoraz - this is the name given to the plesiosaur, the sea-mammoth of Pellucidar’s oceanic realms. It is describes as having a long neck, and a seal-like body. Actually, the name of the monsters above would translate roughly as “sea bear”, a name not precisely used by Burroughs himself. There existed on the outer surface several species of plesiosaur after all, the largest being the elasmosaurus, the species with which the tandoraz may be identified.
Tarag - the great saber-tooth tiger of Pellucidar is close to the size of a buffalo and their saber-fangs are about 18 inches long. It is striped with gold and the glossy black of anthracite coal. They are usually encountered alone, but will occasionally band into large packs of a hundred or more in order to attacks the largest of the Pellucidarian herbivores.
Thag - the huge bull aurochs of Pellucidar. Herds of aurochs ranged throughout the great broadleaf forests of Europe from the last ice age, up until early historical times. The last few died out with the coming of the industrial revolution.
Thipdar - is the gigantic pteranodon of the Cretaceous age, and the most feared predator of Pellucidar’s skies. One thing notable about thipars is that they are used as pets and guard animals by the Mahars, Pellucidar’s formerly dominant race. This may be because both Mahars and Thipdars are related, but pteranodons are still of animal intelligence within Pellucidar, and belong to the pteradactyl order of the pterasauia, rather than the rhamphorinchids, to which the Mahar belong. He describes the wingspan as about twenty-five feet with some whose wingspan measured fifty some feet.
Thipdars – the flying reptiles that guard the queen of the Mahars.
Tracodon - This is a huge, elephant sized herbivorous “duck-billed” dinosaur of the late Cretaceous. Though innumerable species of reptilian life make the Phelian Swamp their home, this animal is the only one given direct mention, as it is seen being devoured by one of the titanic serpents which infest the region. It is more correctly known to science as the anatosaurus. Like the dimophodon, it is not revealed what the native term for this beast is.
Trodon - This is an entirely fictitious monster, as Burroughs himself admits when he tells us that its restoration was never in any book, its skeleton never in any museum. Perhaps it is entirely Pellucidaran in origin, or perhaps it is one species whose surface counterpart will remain undiscovered. The trodon is somewhat pterosaurian, having a head that is “pterodactyl-like”, and mighty leathern wings. Its’ body, however, somewhat resembles a gigantic winged kangaroo, with powerful rear legs, and a massive tail. Its forearms are separate from the wings, and with them the troodon can easily grasp its prey. It also has a pouch with which it transports its victims (and perhaps its young, after they hatch?). Burroughs refers to the Trodon as a “giant marsupial reptile”, though technically this is impossible, since the marsupial reproductive system is strictly mammalian. The trodon paralyzes its victims’ nervous system with its barbed tongue. The victims are then left in the adult trodon’s rookery until the eggs hatch, and the young troodons devour their screaming victims alive.
Tylosaurus - This was one of the most feared predatory reptiles of the upper Cretaceous period. Burroughs does not relate the native term for this reptile, though it is possibly synonymous with the aztarag.
Xexots - a Bronze Age Civilization
Zarith - is the tyrannosaurus rex of Pellucidar, most dreaded and terrible of all terrestrial carnivores. The Pellucidaran t-rex is often misnamed in pastiches, and is called a dryath and a zabor in other places.
I've read several of the Lost World stories, but couldn't hang in there with John Carter (much to my shame). I'll have to give the Pellucidar set a try.
