From the BBC series, “Walking With Beasts”
Hi! Mr. Nature here, with the biggest, hugest land mammal ever to live–Baluchitherium. It’s also known as Indricotherium or Paraceratherium, but I’m sticking with the old name as I first discovered it in Roy Chapman Andrews’ books.
Anyhow, this baby is a whopper. The males were 18 feet high at the shoulder. This animal was a member of the rhinoceros family. So where’s the horn? You ain’t gonna tell me a Baluchitherium needs a horn, are you?
This is the great beast that King Ryons rode to the rescue of the city in Lee Duigon’s immortal classic, The Thunder King. Uh, wait a minute… that’s me. And it’s bad form to brag. Sorry! I seem to get carried away whenever I think about Baluchitheres.
No one has ever found a trace of any mammal bigger than this one, except for whales and they don’t count because they don’t live on the land. Baluchitherium was big enough to be a dinosaur. Big enough to squash your car like a bug.
Behold the works of the Lord, what wonders flow from His hands! Bob Bakker, the famous dinosaur scientist who, more than anyone else, convinced us that dinosaurs were active, warm-blooded creatures and not overgrown stupid mountains of flesh that had to float around in swamps, once told me it was one of his greatest pleasures to contemplate the joy and pleasure God receives from His creation.
There are still some scientists with their heads screwed on straight.
Cool.
I think I chased one of these out of the grove in the back lot, just last summer. Durned thing squashed my 1967 Shelby GT-500 Mustang while fleeing. You wouldn’t believe the runaround my insurance company put me through; for some reason they doubted my word on the matter. “Good Hands” my eye!
Just having a bit of sport, Lee. 🙂
It is amazing to think of what has existed and how it all fits in to the plan of Creation. I have personally seen Stegosaurus footprints, preserved where the mud had solidified into rock, in the foothills of the Colorado Rockies. Talk about an event that changes your perspective. My meager accomplishments are a source of joy; what must it be like for our Maker?
Bob Bakker thought dinosaurs must have been a source of infinite delight to their creator. I can dig that!
As long as they don’t step on priceless classic musclecars. 🙂
Seriously, I agree. I know how much pleasure I get from writing even a very basic computer program; what would it feel like to create a living animal, capable of independent behavior? The multiply that by the countless species of living things. Even science has to concede that most of what we see today came along at the time of the Cambrian Explosion. It’s awe inspiring.
I’m near the end of “The Glass Bridge” and wondering if the Baluchitherium will ever reappear in the Bell Mountain series? I am really enjoying the section about all that gold just sitting in one place – it makes people do crazy things.