front half of the body had white strips like a zebra’s over its brown coat while the back half had none. It was munching on some hay.
“That is Herman. He’s a Quagga. An extinct form of zebra. Last one died in an Amsterdam zoo in 1883.”
“Quagga and dodos! Please don’t tell me that you’ve got a yard filled with T-Rexes on the other side of the building,” she said.
“No, all the T-Rexes we had escaped last week. They’re up in the forest now, hunting anything they can find and terrorizing the natives.”
She looked to him sharply, only to see a wide grin and knew he was kidding her.
“Well, it would be possible, wouldn’t it?” she asked.
“Well, sure, but we’re more interested in perfecting the Machine than creating a Jurassic Park. Besides, the Machine is limited in the size of the object it can bring back. Dr. Carlyn has some very small dinosaurs, but a T-Rex would never fit in the chamber.”
“You have any more animals around?” she asked carefully.
“Well, just one right now, he said with a smile. “Come on, I’ll show you.”
Inside the building there was a laboratory, including a lot of testing equipment and cages.
“This here is Smiley. Of course, he’s just a juvenile now.”
Inside a wire cage was a large cat with light brown coat. When it looked up at her, she saw a blunt forehead and small, rounded ears. But what immediately caught her eye were the teeth protruding from the upper jaw. It looked like a cross between a cougar and a vampire.
Before she could ask, he told her, “This is a Smilodon, also known as the Saber-Toothed Cat.” He opened the cage and reached in. When he turned around, the cat was in his arms and licking his face. It was big enough that he could barely hold it.
“Smiley here is quite affectionate, but that maybe partly because he was raised here, not in the wild. Human company is all he knows. We picked him up right after he was born. He was bottle fed by humans and has become rather domesticated. Of course, now we feed him nice, juicy chunks of raw meat. Even so, he still plays rather roughly at times. Tries to bite the hand that feeds him and such.”
“A Saber-Toothed Tiger,” Tamara said in wonderment.
“Cat actually. Calling it a tiger is wrong. Would you like to pet Smiley?”
“I’ll pass. My aunt had a cat once, and every time I tried to pet it, it bit me.”
He scratched Smiley’s head, which the cat seemed to like very much, then put it back in the cage.
“Smiley’s in here for some tests. Later I’ll take him for a walk and put him in the larger cage. It’s big enough for him to roam around in.”
“How big will Smiley get?” Tamara wondered aloud.
“Oh, that depends. My field is not paleontology, so I’m not totally sure which species of Smilodon this is. If he’s a Smilodon Gracilis , then he’ll max out at about 220 pounds. If he’s a Smilodon fatalis , then about 600 pounds. But if he’s a Smilodon Populator , then he’ll get up to 800 pounds. That’s about the size of the largest Siberian Tigers.” He sighed. “I’m afraid we’ll have to get rid of him before then.”
“What will you do with him?”
“That hasn’t been decided yet. I’m hoping that we can announce our project before then so we can openly give him to a zoo. But our little time machine is top secret right now and is likely to stay that way for a long time to come. I’m pushing to announce him as a cloning project using DNA from a Smilodon crossed with a modern day tiger. Smilodons, you may know, became extinct only a few thousand years ago. They were contemporaries with man. Cloning them without the Machine would be completely possible with modern techniques. There’s been talk about cloning a mammoth. Why not a
“That is Herman. He’s a Quagga. An extinct form of zebra. Last one died in an Amsterdam zoo in 1883.”
“Quagga and dodos! Please don’t tell me that you’ve got a yard filled with T-Rexes on the other side of the building,” she said.
“No, all the T-Rexes we had escaped last week. They’re up in the forest now, hunting anything they can find and terrorizing the natives.”
She looked to him sharply, only to see a wide grin and knew he was kidding her.
“Well, it would be possible, wouldn’t it?” she asked.
“Well, sure, but we’re more interested in perfecting the Machine than creating a Jurassic Park. Besides, the Machine is limited in the size of the object it can bring back. Dr. Carlyn has some very small dinosaurs, but a T-Rex would never fit in the chamber.”
“You have any more animals around?” she asked carefully.
“Well, just one right now, he said with a smile. “Come on, I’ll show you.”
Inside the building there was a laboratory, including a lot of testing equipment and cages.
“This here is Smiley. Of course, he’s just a juvenile now.”
Inside a wire cage was a large cat with light brown coat. When it looked up at her, she saw a blunt forehead and small, rounded ears. But what immediately caught her eye were the teeth protruding from the upper jaw. It looked like a cross between a cougar and a vampire.
Before she could ask, he told her, “This is a Smilodon, also known as the Saber-Toothed Cat.” He opened the cage and reached in. When he turned around, the cat was in his arms and licking his face. It was big enough that he could barely hold it.
“Smiley here is quite affectionate, but that maybe partly because he was raised here, not in the wild. Human company is all he knows. We picked him up right after he was born. He was bottle fed by humans and has become rather domesticated. Of course, now we feed him nice, juicy chunks of raw meat. Even so, he still plays rather roughly at times. Tries to bite the hand that feeds him and such.”
“A Saber-Toothed Tiger,” Tamara said in wonderment.
“Cat actually. Calling it a tiger is wrong. Would you like to pet Smiley?”
“I’ll pass. My aunt had a cat once, and every time I tried to pet it, it bit me.”
He scratched Smiley’s head, which the cat seemed to like very much, then put it back in the cage.
“Smiley’s in here for some tests. Later I’ll take him for a walk and put him in the larger cage. It’s big enough for him to roam around in.”
“How big will Smiley get?” Tamara wondered aloud.
“Oh, that depends. My field is not paleontology, so I’m not totally sure which species of Smilodon this is. If he’s a Smilodon Gracilis , then he’ll max out at about 220 pounds. If he’s a Smilodon fatalis , then about 600 pounds. But if he’s a Smilodon Populator , then he’ll get up to 800 pounds. That’s about the size of the largest Siberian Tigers.” He sighed. “I’m afraid we’ll have to get rid of him before then.”
“What will you do with him?”
“That hasn’t been decided yet. I’m hoping that we can announce our project before then so we can openly give him to a zoo. But our little time machine is top secret right now and is likely to stay that way for a long time to come. I’m pushing to announce him as a cloning project using DNA from a Smilodon crossed with a modern day tiger. Smilodons, you may know, became extinct only a few thousand years ago. They were contemporaries with man. Cloning them without the Machine would be completely possible with modern techniques. There’s been talk about cloning a mammoth. Why not a
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