The Great Zoo of China
by Matthew Reilly
(London: Orion, 2014)
“The animal we know aw a dragon is a dinosaur, a most unique kind of dinosaur that survived the meteor impact that condemned the rest of its species to extinction.”
Page 68.
“Archosaurs were the dominant land animals during he Triassic Age and they are the ancient ancestors f crocodilians and, importantly, the branch of flying reptiles known as pterosaurs.”
Page 69.
Convincing someone to believe something that was inherently unbelievable often meant getting that person to make a quick and easy comparison to something they already knew.
Pages 69-70.
“Why does the dragon legend persist around the world so consistently? Because all around the world for thousand of years, lone dragons have been emerging form hibernation to test the atmosphere, checking on behalf of their clans to se if the ambient temperature has risen enough and the time to emerge has arrived.”
Page 73.
Myths arise from actual events, remarkable events that get talked about precisely because they are remarkable and then get embellished in the retelling.
Page 73.
We believe that all of those ancient dragon myths, from Gilgamesh to Hercules to Beowulf, have their genesis in real events, real events that occurred ta times when the Earth was warmer.
Page 73.
In the ultraviolet spectrum, urine glowed like neon. That was how hawks and falcons spotted their prey on the ground.
Page 85.
“The sonic shields will shoo a dragon away; the electromagnetic domes will knock them out.”
Page 87.
Curiosity in an animal was a sign of intelligence and it was rare. You found it only in a few members of the animal kingdom: chimpanzees, gorillas and dolphins.
Page 119.
This zoo is the future of China. Its existence cannot be tarnished by negative reports in the Western media. No-one can know what has happened here today and no-one will. All witnesses must be eliminated. Page 240.
Usually solitary animals, crocs sometimes hunted in a manner known as ‘mobbing’: at the sign of a lot of food - like, for instance, a herd of zebras crossing a river - they banded together. But they almost always went for the outliers of the herd, usually the slower or younger ones, or the ones that panicked and bolted.
Page 244.
As she ran, CJ kept an ear out for another sound: the sound of realisation. When the Chinese discovered that the American witnesses to the bloodshed had not been eliminated, there would be uproar
Page 249.
You’ve got to rail a few times before you succeed. Page 387.
CJ figured that the bigger the nickel deposit, the bigger the dragon nest.
Page 427.
“Kill them both and take the dragon away for re-education.”
Page 446.