Professor Challenger

Synopsis
After adventuring in South America, Professor Challenger, a famous zoologist, returns to his home on Enmore Park in Kensington, England. He claims to have discovered a plateau in the Amazon basin where dinosaurs still live. Mocked by the scientific community, Challenger shuns journalists who only seem interested in destroying his reputation further. Then he meets Edward Malone of the Daily Gazette, and decides to take him to South America and prove his calims. Challenger and Malone are accompanied by Professor Summerlee, another scientist qualified to examine any evidence, and Lord John Roxton, an adventurer who is well acquainted with South America.

After an adventure in Mapple White Land, the name given to the mysterious lost world that is populated with dinosaurs and unfriendly natives, Challenger and his team return to England where they are greeted by the same skepticism that Challenger facedafter his first trip. However, this time, Challenger brings a live pterodactyl with him as evidence. Later, using money from diamonds found on their adventure, Challenger opens a private museum.

Later still, Challenger predicts that the Earth will pass through a cloud of lethal ether. He invites Malone, Summerlee and Roxton to join him and his wife, in a sealed room with oxygen tanks. They appear to be the only survivors on Earth, but later, they learn that the rest of the population was only in a coma.

In addition to being a highly intelligent scientist, Professor Challenger was also a physically imposing man, with a barrel chest and a crude and dominating personality. He was not the kind to back away from a challenge and he was a tough brawler.

Challenger's dosier in The Lost World reads thus:

"'Challenger, George Edward. Born: Largs, N. B., 1863. Educ.: Largs Academy; Edinburgh University. British Museum Assistant, 1892. Assistant-Keeper of Comparative Anthropology Department, 1893. Resigned after acrimonious correspondence same year. Winner of Crayston Medal for Zoological Research. Foreign Member of'—well, quite a lot of things, about two inches of small type—'Societe Belge, American Academy of Sciences, La Plata, etc., etc. Ex-President Palaeontological Society. Section H, British Association'—so on, so on!—'Publications: "Some Observations Upon a Series of Kalmuck Skulls"; "Outlines of Vertebrate Evolution"; and numerous papers, including "The underlying fallacy of Weissmannism," which caused heated discussion at the Zoological Congress of Vienna. Recreations: Walking, Alpine climbing. Address: Enmore Park, Kensington, W.'