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I read this in English in the late 70s in primary school.

What I remember:

  • Two boys are somehow caught up in a time travel scenario. I think their father may have been the inventor of the time machine.
  • Their initial journey takes them back about 200 million years.
  • They meet an animal they identify as a cynogasaurus. At least, that's what my memory told me. Google tells me my memory may be playing tricks and they met a cynognathus instead. It was definitely cynogsomething.
  • They somehow jump forward to caveman times with the cynogasaurus/cynognathus in tow.
  • They befriend a similarly-aged kid who's a member of a particular tribe, possibly the leopard tribe.
  • The leopard tribe are enemies of the zebra tribe. It's possible I've got both animals wrong.
  • Each tribe has a sacred animal. Disputes between the tribes are settled by their sacred animals fighting.
  • Somehow the kids have caused the death of "their" tribe's sacred animal so they offer the cynogawhatsit, which the cave-people call Nog, in its place. Nog wins the fight and stays on as the sacred animal when the kids leave.

Edit: I thought it may have been Lester Del Rey's "Tunnel Through Time", the subject of a few queries here over the years. The cover looks familiar and some details match. However two comments have verified that it doesn't feature the cynog* creature, sacred animals or the fight, which are what I recall about the book.

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    Tunnel Through Time has a very similar plot, but there is no cynoganything (named Nog or otherwise). I wonder if you are mixing up two books.
    – John Rennie
    Commented Jun 23, 2020 at 7:13
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    Searching for "Nog" or "stone age" in Google Book's version of Tunnel Through Time gives 0 results.
    – Klaus Æ. Mogensen
    Commented Jun 23, 2020 at 7:37
  • Thanks both. It looks like I can definitely rule out the Del Rey.
    – Moriarty
    Commented Jun 23, 2020 at 21:45

1 Answer 1

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Could this be "The Anytime Rings" (1963) by Robert Faraday? This involves some children traveling in time with a pet cynognathus. I don't know if the other details match up though.

book cover, two boys watch as one's ring unfolds a view of a caveman boy about to spear a mammoth

GordonD contributes the following description:

The dinosaur was an exhibit in a carnival sideshow and it was the owner who had the time-travelling rings, which is how he got the animal in the first place.

The dinosaur was injured in a fire and the boys took it back to prehistoric times which presumably led to the adventure described above.

The only other thing I remember is that it was a Cynognathus nicknamed 'Nog' which also fits the description.

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  • That cover looks very familiar! Unfortunately google isn't very helpful with details. Perhaps someone owns a copy they can look up?
    – Moriarty
    Commented Jun 23, 2020 at 21:48
  • I've just asked about this very book and was directed here. My recollection of the plot (given that it's fifty years since I read it) is that the dinosaur was an exhibit in a carnival sideshow and it was the owner who had the time-travelling rings, which is how he got the animal in the first place. The dinosaur was injured in a fire and the boys took it back to prehistoric times (I forget why!) which presumably led to the adventure described above. Apart from the cover being familiar the only other thing I remember is that it was a Cynognathus nicknamed 'Nog' which also fits the description!
    – GordonD
    Commented Jan 29, 2021 at 11:54

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