Our Lady of the Sauropods

Form: Short story

Year: 1980

Publication history:

• 1980 : Omni September 1980 (m) ,
• 1982 : The Endless Frontier Vol. II (pb) , Ace
• 1982 : The Science Fictional Dinosaur (pb) , Avon
• 1982 : Best of Omni Science Fiction 4 (pb) , Omni
• 1984 : The Conglomeroid Cocktail Party (hc) , Science Fiction Book Club, 243 pp., 1642
• 1984 : The Conglomeroid Cocktail Party (hc) , Arbor House
• 1985 : The Fourth Omni Book of Science Fiction (pb) , Zebra
• 1985 : The Conglomeroid Cocktail Party (hc) , Gollancz (UK), 284 pp., 03544-7
• 1985 : The Conglomeroid Cocktail Party (pb) , Bantam, 317 pp., ISBN 0-553-25077-9
• 1987 : Det brokiga cocktailpartyt (pb) , Korpen (Sweden), ISBN 91-7374-186-8 (in Swedish tr. Erik Andersson)
• 1989 : Compagnons secrets (pb) , Denoël (France), 352 pp., ISBN 2-207-30490-6, 490 (in French "Notre-dame des sauropodes" tr. Jacques Chambon)
• 1989 : The Conglomeroid Cocktail Party (pb) , Gollancz (UK), 284 pp., 04622-8
• 1995 : More of the Best of Science Fiction and Fantasy (acd) , Dove Audio
• 1996 : Dinosaurs (hc) , Donald I Fine
• 1999 : Compagnons secrets (pb) , Denoël (France), 346 pp., ISBN 2207249336 (in French "Notre-dame des sauropodes" tr. Jacques Chambon)
• 2000 : The Conglomeroid Cocktail Party (ol) , Peanut Press
• 2000 : Fictionwise (ol) , Fictionwise

This was the first piece of short fiction Silverberg wrote after his 1970s sabbatical, written at the urging of Ben Bova and Robert Sheckley at Omni. Using fossil DNA, scientists have brought dinosaurs back to life and put them on an island to study them. There's dissent among the scientists whether they should allow tourists to visit the island. Sound familiar? But this Dino Island is an L5 space station, so the creatures can't escape and harm anyone. Or can they?

The main issue in this story is this: if dinosaurs dominated the planet for so many millions of years, who's to say they didn't have a kind of civilization? Our human cultures are so centered on buildings and other physical manifestations of technology that we can't imagine a civilization not based on manipulation of the environment. This idea was also treated in Downward to the Earth.

The audio adaptation is available from Audible.com.