Mike Novacek and Mark A. Norell : First Camp:

Dinner Menu: First Course: fried provolone with Italian seasoning
Main Course: Beef and Refried Beans

It's a wonderful evening. We just finished a wholesome meal of refried beans and fried provolone cheese. In the background we are enjoying the World Cup-- Mongolian style, with our crew of five nationalities cajoling each other as they are kicking the ball toward goals constructed of our camp provisions. These evenings are magical, and often turn our conversations toward experiences shared over nearly 20 years of working together- from frigid mountain tops in Patagonia to sweltering deserts in Baja California. Our work in Mongolia is now in its ninth year. It is both a diversion from and a necessary part of our work at the museum. Mike as Provost and Mark as the Chairman of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Our interests in this project diverge, in that Mike studies the interrelationships of mammals.

Mark is interested in dinosaurs and how they relate to birds. We both are interested in discovering fossils which have only been dreamt about. That is what brings us to Mongolia-- a place where we have found stuff that has changed the way that we look at our world that existed 80 million years ago in this part of Central Asia.

Our team is a diverse mix of expertise and passion for paleontology, specialists on dinosaurs, mammals, birds, crocodiles, geology. Also highly skilled professionals trained in excavating and preparing fossils, and some of the best auto mechanics in the world. The team numbers eighteen; seven people from the U. S., one from Denmark, one from Argentina, one from China and eight from the wild and vast country of Mongolia. Together we will continue south and west tomorrow eventually reaching the Gobi Desert, one of the world's greatest treasure houses for dinosaurs and other fossils. it's a tough haul on poorly mapped terrain, and this year looks like it will be a record for heat. But the team is happy and festive on Independence Day. Our patriotism notwithstanding, the final score for our world cup is in: Mongolians 3; Internationals 1.

Our co-leader for the expedition is once again Demberylin Dashzeveg, the famous Mongolian paleontologist. "Dash" has worked in the Gobi for nearly forty years and knows this half a million square miles of wilderness better than perhaps any living explorer. He has published many important papers on fossils from Central Asia. He has an uncanny sense of the routes and the lay of the land. But this year we are heading for an area out to the southwest Gobi, that is even new and poorly known to Dash. Navigating this sector of desert, let alone finding a rich site will be a challenge. We are confident however that the summer will yield successes. After all, we plan to eventually return this summer to Ukhaa Tolgod, the incredibly rich fossil site we found in 1993, that has produced among other things, Oviraptor embryos, nesting oviraptorid dinosaurs, and a cornucopia of tiny mammal and lizard skulls. Every year of work at this site has proven productive and we expect our visit this year will pay off.

The golden light that highlighted the soccer game is now crimson. It's 10:30 and you can still pick out every detail of the landscape. A better way to start an expedition cannot be imagined.

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