“...The largest, so far unsurpassed experiment is, of course, the universe of Harrison’s “Eden” and his ilanes. It seems impossible to call them aquatic creatures, but... they can. The Yilane civilization is neither sea nor land: rather shallow-water. These sauroids are not capable of truly long voyages (they have to resort to “biotechnology”), but they clearly gravitate towards water, spend a very significant part of their time at sea, and make their main voyages by sea on genetically modified ichthyosaur ships, on the shores of the seas (large rivers, lakes) grow their incredible tree-cities... And the juveniles generally must go through the stage of oceanic existence: only mature females have the opportunity to go out on land for a long time and even gain intelligence, albeit not always and to varying degrees. The world of “Eden”, certainly dinosaur, but should the Yilans themselves be considered dinosaurs?..."