Michael NovacekDinosaurs of the Flaming CliffsMonika says:
The Flaming Cliffs of Mongolia are often called the Mecca of Paleontology. For a long time they were out of the reach of western scientists. Only after the Fall of the Iron Curtain at the end of the 80ies and beginning of the 90ies new expeditions in this area were possible and this led to some of the most spectacular finds of the decade. In the 20ies Roy Chapman Andrews of the American Museum of Natural History in New York organized several expeditions to the Gobi desert, but the political situation of Mongolia at the end of the 20ies put a stop to that. The object of those expeditions weren’t dinosaurs, but traces of early man. What was found in the sediments from the late Cretaceous (age ca. 80 million years) were dinosaurs and primitive mammals preserved in amazing quality because of the climatic conditions. Not only the quality of the fossils from the Gobi desert is impressive, but also their quantity. One of the most frequent finds is the small horned dinosaur Protoceratops andrewsi. Specimen of all ages were found, which is quite rare. More commonly known is the small theropod Velociraptor mongoliensis, one of the stars of Michael Crichton’s JURASSIC PARK. Roy Chapman Andrews found remnants of this nimble predator on one of his expeditions. Some of the dinosaurs from the Gobi desert are similar to North American species, like for example the big Tyrannosaurus Tarbosaurus bataar. Others, however, don’t resemble any of the other species found on different continents. Among them is the small toothless theropod Oviraptor, whose name means egg thief. He received this name after the first specimen was found on a nest of dinosaur eggs attributed to the Protoceratops. It was assumed that he died suddenly while robbing the nest. A new find from the 90ies toppled this theory: an Oviraptor fossilized in a brooding position on a nest full of eggs. Some of the eggs contained embryos that were identified as Oviraptors after closer examination. The eggs themselves corresponded in shape those formerly attributed to the Protoceratops. A good example that you can always be surprised and that almost every textbook has to be rewritten at some point. Michael Novacek is the curator of the American Museum of Natural History and participated in the Gobi expeditions of recent years. The book is a scientific account of the expeditions and the various finds rather than a travel diary. That makes for a dryer narrative than e. g. found in Peter Ward’s wonderful travel book On Methuselah's Trail, but still it is written in a fluent style and suitable for laypeople as well. Apart from a detailed description of the finds Novacek imparts the basics you need to understand the evolution of the dinosaurs of the Gobi desert. Who wants to get into the matter and isn’t content with superficial knowledge should read DINOSAURS OF THE FLAMING CLIFFS. A well-done book about a fascinating area of paleontology, suitable for beginners and more advanced students. Looking at some of the pieces in New York City is a special experience, but if you don’t have the opportunity to go to New York yourself you can take a virtual journey: read the travel journal of the Gobi expedition of 1998 and/or look at the pictures of the findings on the website of the American Museum of Natural History in the section Gobi - Dinosaurs of the Desert. Publisher: Anchor Books, New York 1996 |
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Copyright 1999 Christina Gross & Monika Hübner |
