The Niocene Era

NOTE: The B and W artwork on this page is by Steve Gordon for the upcoming graphic novel by Martin Powell and Steve Gordon , based on the Burroughs noevle The Eternal savage. Cool, ain't it? There's a number of other ERB graphic novels due out this year, including At the Earth's Core and Tarzan At the Earth's Core, in celebration of ERB's 100th aniversary.

Edgar Rice Burroughs invented the fictonal Niocene Age for his novel the Eternal Lover, subsequently retitled The Eternal Savage. It's hero was Nu, a Cro-Magnon warrior whose beloved was Nat-ul. Nu seeks the head of the great sabertooth tiger Oo, much as the primitives of Pellucidar seek the head of a tarag to awin the mate of their choice. He successfully slays the beasts after a battle royal, but ends end gettig thrust back into present-day Africa where he meets with Victoria Custer, who is Nat-ul's modenr incarnation. Later, Custer expereinces life in the Niocence as Nat-ul, and Nu rescues her many more times. This the one notable "prehistoric" novel set not in a Lost World locale, but in the ancient past. While it supposedly takes place in Africa, it is not the Africa of actual history. If anything, it takes place in a mythical prehistory similar to One Million B. C. or Joe Kubert's Tor, where the Age of Reptiles has over lapped into the dawning ages of Man, and beasts of differnet prehistoric ages intermingle. Niocence Africa very much resembles Pellucidar, and many of the same species predominate. Ice-Age fauna seems the most common, with a few Mesozoic holdovers, mainly marine and flying saurians. ERB mentions, "from the distant sea and swamp came the hissing of saurian and amphibian." Surviving dinosaurs may lurk in the swamp, and labyrinthodont amphibians, like Pellucidar's sithic, may lurk there as well. The human inhabitants seem to be all white Cro-Magons, though with an inhanced ability for swinging through the trees. There exists on an island a race of hairy beings called "tree-people", with pig-eyes and worlf-fangs, which may be a relic populartion of Homo Erectus.


Oo



The great saber-tooth tiger, whom Nu slays and beheads for Nat-ul. He represents essentially the same species as the giant tarags of Pellucidar. The body as as huge as a full-grown bull, gorgeously striped in brilliant gold and glossy black. The ivory slashers are fully eighteen-inches long. Burroughs greatly inflated the beast's proportions for dramati effect.

Ur
The great cave-bear of the stone age, Ursus Spaleus, the mortal enemy of Oo.

Gluh

The wooly mammoth of the ice age, not native to Africa in our own history.

Ta
The great wooly rhinoceras, Coleodonta, a native of Plesticene Eurasia, but not Africa, in our own history.

Zor

The mighty cave-lion of the Plesticence. Burroughs describes both sexes as being maned.According to actual cave-paintings, this species was in fact maneless.

Aurochs

Giant bovines, common to Europe up into historical times. Did in fact roam Afica in prehistoric times.

Cave Hyena
Giant relative of the modern hyena

Pterodactyl

A giant flying reptile, possibly actually a pterandon, possibly synonomous with the thipdars of Pellucidar. One bore Nat-ul to its nest on the island of the tree-people. Burroughs remarks that "even in Nat-ul's day they were practically extinct."

Marine Saurians

Marine reptiles still proliferate in the Niocence oceans, such as the plesiosaur that attack's Nu's boat, as he crosses the water to save his beloved. The artist above protrayed a rather fanciful representation of the beast.

Races

The people of the Niocence, called "troglodytes" by Burroughs, are white-skinned Cro-Magnon people. There are two main cultures where Nu lives, the cave dwellers, Nu's people, and the boat-builder's Tur's people, who live on the edge f the paleolithic sea. Nu's people dress in the hides of carnivores slain in battle, while the boat-builders wear the hides of aurochs and other herbivores.

Tree People
The Tree people are a relic popultion of some former stage of human development, who have manage to persist one of the islands. They are hideous race ofcreatures with fur and fangs.