The illustrations herein are dedicated with much admiration and respect to my mother and father,who allowed me to paint Tyrannosaurus Rex on my bedroom wall when I was nine years old.
And for Ray Strassburger, my fifth-grade teacher, who knew a seed when he saw one.
My special thanks go to Phil Currie, Michael Ryan, and the staff of the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta, Canada; to Karen Anderson, Kathleen Alcala, and Astrid Anderson Bear; and to my children, Erik and Alexandra, both of whom contributed animal ideas and listened to portions of the manuscript.
I owe a debt of gratitude as well to Ray Harryhausen, for partaking of this adventure; to Ron Borst and George E. Turner for information on Merian C. Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack; to Bill Warren; and to Dan Garrett, for enthusiastic footwork in Los Angeles.
I thank also the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, for keeping his works alive and available.
I cannot begin to list all the other artists, paleontologists, authors, animators, etc.; instead, I reemphasize the dedication.
I would like to thank Charlie McGrady at CM Studio for supplying the wonderful dinosaur models used in the paintings for this book.
I would also like to thank William Stout for his warm support and inspiration, and for bringing dinos back to life in my imagination via his delicious art. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
