Indiana Jones and dragon bones (9 photos)

The camels walked slowly after the cars from which they protruded rifles on display. On one car swayed a heavy army gun. A sand-scarred US flag flapped above him. risking life, people led a caravan through bandit places to deep gorges, where lay the petrified bones of ancient lizards.





A scientist in a cowboy hat, with a weapon on his belt ... Isn't it true, familiar image? George Lucas, who invented Indiana Jones, claimed that not influenced by Andrews, but the analogies are all too obvious.



Expedition to the Gobi Desert organized by the New York Museum history of nature and the American magazine "Asia". But in reality she was the brainchild of one man - Roy Chapman Andrews, who always wanted to become a traveller. As a boy, he read to the holes a book about Robinson Crusoe, knew by heart all the forests, streams and rivers of his native Wisconsin and in finally achieved the realization of his dream.

Roy can be safely called a professional hunter. Ever since since he got a job at the Natural History Museum, his replenishment of museum collections became a top priority. Before go to China and Mongolia in search of bones, Andrews visited many places and never returned empty-handed, bringing various trophies. Whom he just did not shoot - bears, eagles, pythons, gibbons, various ungulates. Outside was the beginning twentieth century, and no one thought that animals could die out. It was more important to put the scarecrow in the window...





One of the first serious tasks was the study of whales in places of their capture. During the butchering of carcasses, Roy comprehended the anatomy of whales, poking around in wombs the size of a double bed, extracting fetuses from dead females. Overcoming bouts of seasickness, he went to sea with whalers, had the opportunity to observe how sea giants love each other friend, as they die from harpoons to turn into fat and fertilizer. He even managed to beg the captain to give him a chance to harpoon one of whales, betting an amount comparable to the cost of production.

Then there was a trip to the Philippine Islands, teeming with birds and insects. The warship that brought Roy to a small uninhabited island, broke when returning back. IN as a result, the researcher, along with two guides, remained in the jungle for two weeks. Nobody expected to see them in good health. However The trio did well. They ate like in a sanatorium, roasting on charcoal fish, crabs and fat pigeons. When the cartridges ran out, the game became catch with nets woven from the fibers of coconut palms. Roy called himself Robinson Crusoe, who had two Fridays at once. In the evenings he taught guides prepare stuffed animals and collect sea water in puddles after low tide living creatures.





Asia so fascinated Andrews that when he returned to America, he immediately began to look for an opportunity to go again to this fabulous continent. The museum went to meet him and sent him to Korea, then to China and Japan, since Andrews always returned with interesting specimens, and travel was almost free. Life in those parts was very cheap. A room with a young lady and breakfast cost only 2.5 dollars.

When the First World War began, Andrews settled in Beijing and became cooperate with US intelligence. For espionage information "department Uncle Sam" gave him a decent travel allowance and paid for everything his expenses. Alas, the carefree life soon ended. Andrews's wife one of the letters blabbed about his secret, and intelligence refused services agent.

Leaving Asia, Andrews had already figured out how to return here. Him a plan for a grandiose paleontological expedition to the Gobi Desert was ripened. The idea was risky. None of the previous researchers, including Major General Przhevalsky, found cemeteries in Mongolia fossil animals. Occasionally, only individual bones and dragon teeth, which have long been used in Chinese medicine. Neither skeletons, nor skulls, which were of particular interest to museums, are not met.

In addition, the scale of the expedition was unprecedented, and the cost was astronomical. After calculations and careful planning amount reached 250 thousand dollars, which, taking into account inflation now equals 5 million. But Roy Chapman Andrews was not one of those who retreats from the dream. Being a very skillful orator, he is amazingly easily ignited heartsfinancial tycoons. Apparently, the spirit of adventurism was also no stranger. Enlisting the support of magnate Morgan for the initiative, Roy comparatively quickly promoted the smaller bourgeoisie and in a few months collected the required amount.



The official goal was to find evidence for the theory paleontologist Henry Osborne, according to which it is Central Asia was home to many families of mammals. Osborne was director of the Museum and Andrews' immediate supervisor.

In addition, Roy hoped to find the "missing link" between monkey and man. The newspapermen were most delighted with this, who staged a real bacchanalia, which seriously annoyed Andrews. The Americans even had a joke: why spend money and to go to Asia for the "missing link" if I saw him on the subway yesterday?

But all this is the search for the most ancient forefathers, the bones of the antediluvian monsters - was just an excuse. Actually, Andrews did not care what exactly have to search. Adventure was the main thing for him.

The path to the fossils was dangerous as hell. Chinese the empire collapsed literally the day before. Small and small fought for power in the country. large leaders, gangs were in charge in the steppes, and in Peking, not far from Temple of Heaven, in a businesslike way, like cabbage, they chopped off their heads.



Andrews' most famous find was dinosaur egg clutches. The offspring, most likely, was cared for by males who collected eggs from different females and folding them in a circle in several rows.

The base of the expedition was the abandoned imperial palace in capital. The travelers left it in April 1922 and soon crossed the Great Wall of China.

The expedition consisted of two detachments. The first one was moving a caravan with up to a hundred camels. The second was driving cars, exploring cliffs and hoping that camels will deliver fuel and provisions to the agreed place. In a devastated country where it raged civil war, it was not easy.

The caravan easily coped with small gangs of bandits, scaring them away with shots. However, there were other gangs - several hundreds, or even a thousand fighters, who could only be stopped by artillery. Soon the expedition met with such a horde.

Finding himself in a practically hopeless situation, Andrews did not lose his head and offered medical assistance to the robbers.

Like Dr. Aibolit, he bandaged and treated wounds, amputated and sewed up limbs. In his youth he it happened to dissect the corpses of famous assassins, and these skills were unexpectedly useful in the desert wilderness. How said Roy, he did not suspect "how many parts of his anatomy can lose the Chinese and still go on living." Rogues with Honor saw Roy off, but later it became known that after eating all the food in the village, the bandits took on the locals.





The results of the long-term expedition exceeded all expectations. Were deposits of bones of new, previously unknown dinosaurs were found and mammals, including giant pigs, elephants and hornless rhinos.

The expedition also had to deal with Buddhist monks. The monasteries were islands of civilization in this vast expanse. According to the Mongolian tradition, each family gave a monk to one of sons. Therefore, a third of the men in these parts were beggars, dressed in bright orange togas. Usually the monks loudly protested against the fact that the Swarm is disturbing sacred places and dragon bones, but for reward agreed to show new locations and store food finds.

Roy even managed to make friends with a Mongolian hutuhtu lama, who occupies second place in the Buddhist hierarchy after the Dalai Lama. IN unlike other monks, he was educated and even subscribed to various western technical novelties according to the catalogue. The monk showed Roy French a car parked in a temple between statues of buddhas and bodhisattvas. By car no one went, it was used for ritual purposes: the Mongols kept for the wires connected to the battery, and thus received blessing…

As we approach the city of Urga, the future Ulaanbaatar, The pictures got worse and worse. Chinese soldiers fled from Mongolia. They were finished off by the Mongols and the White Guards. More recently raged here former tsarist general von Ungern-Sternberg, known as the Crazy Baron. He was driven away by the troops of the Red Army under the command of Rokossovsky.

The corpses of soldiers, Buddhist monks lay on the steppe roads and unsuccessful merchants. Large street dogs similar to Tibetan mastiffs, accustomed to the taste of human meat and saw prey in everypasserby.

One night a pack of hungry dogs attacked the camp researchers. However, fate turned out to be favorable to Roy, and the animals stopped by shots. The dogs limited themselves to eating their own wounded comrades. From the leader, whom Roy shot from the Winchester skull, by morning only shreds of bloody wool remained.

The desert was rarely welcoming. Fuel canisters are not withstood daily temperature fluctuations and burst with the sound of firecrackers. The howling of the wind was maddening, and the grains of sand during storms cut faces to blood and made car windows frosted.

Nevertheless, the results of the long-term expedition surpassed all expectations. Bone deposits of new, previously unknown dinosaurs and mammals, including giant pigs, elephants and hornless rhinos. Among the trophies there were dozens of skeletons of nimble predatory velociraptors and pangolins, which were named after Andrews Andrews protoceratops. They resembled the three-horned ones that lived in America. Triceratops, but unlike them, they barely grew to the size of a sheep. At they had beak-shaped mouths and bony outgrowths on the neck, similar to collars. At first, scientists decided that the protoceratops were the ancestors triceratops, but later it turned out that they existed at about one time. Like their American relatives, Protoceratops ate grass, and a powerful "beak" probably served as a defense against predators. The expedition obtained the remains of protoceratops of various ages - from small skulls of young ones to large, massive bones of old individuals.



Andrews' most famous find was egg clutches. dinosaurs. They were initially attributed to protoceratops, despite the fact that nearby found the skeleton of a two-legged two-meter dinosaur, similar to ostrich, but with a much more powerful beak. This finding has been explained original: a dinosaur named Oviraptor allegedly tried to steal eggs, but was caught off guard by a sandstorm that buried him along with the nest. The reason for the misunderstanding was the structure of the "beak" of the lizard, excellent for cracking shells. Much later it was found the same egg, which contained the skeleton of an oviraptor embryo. It turns out that the undeservedly called "egg-stealer" oviraptor was a hen and died in the line of parental duty. And it was precisely "died", and not "died", because the offspring, most likely, were cared for by males, collecting eggs from different females and folding them in a circle into several rows.

Andrews found almost everything planned, except one - the "missing link" in human evolution. Instead of this Numerous traces of a later, Stone Age were discovered - placers of scrapers and arrowheads of prehistoric people.

After these finds, archaeologist Nels joined the expedition. Nelson, who amassed a rich harvest of artifacts, starting with silicon guns and ending with weapons from the time of Genghis Khan. The scientist had the artificial eye that once saved him. One day to the archaeologist the Mongols crept up, who were going to profit from his things. noticing them, Nelson pulled out a glass eye, put it on a stone and said that he would to observe strangers, after which he turned around and calmly continued dig in the ground. The nomads left the "sorcerer" alone...



Finishing the season in autumn, the researchers returned to the base in Beijing, and Roy went to his homeland in the United States to report to his superiors and find funds to continue research. One day he arranged public auction, hoping to attract the attention of the public and open the way for small donations. He wanted excavations in the Gobi became the business of the whole country. The idea may have worked, but, unfortunately, Selling a single dinosaur egg for $5,000 unpleasant consequences. The new authorities of China and Mongolia realized that stone remains have not only scientific, but also quite material value. Soon the Americans were banned from working in the Gobi. your role also played the fact that Asia gradually fell under the harsh charm of communism. The capitalists, the oppressors of the workers, here began to strongly love ... However, every expedition ends sooner or later.

Thanks to the Gobi epic, an aura formed around Roy a seasoned pioneer. This was helped by his exceptional talent. narrator. He lectured extensively, wrote for magazines, and became a real idol for hundreds of American boys, which, in general, is not marvelous.

A scientist in a cowboy hat, with a weapon on his belt ... Isn't it true, familiar image? George Lucas, who invented Indiana Jones, claimed that not influenced by Andrews, but the analogies are all too obvious.

The fate of Andrews was even more amazing than the adventure Jones. His travels are enoughs for a dozen lives. But the main thing is that he lived his life in such a way that he never betrayed his dream.