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Michael Novacek Mike Novacek is senior Vice President and Provost of Science at the American Museum of Natural History. He is a specialist on fossil mammals, and has either led or worked on expeditions in Mexico, western North America, the high Andes of Chile, and the Arabian Peninsula. He accompanied Mark Norell and Malcolm McKenna on the 1990 expedition to the Gobi, the first return of western paleontologists to Mongolia in over 60 years. |
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Mark A. Norell Mark Norell is chairman and associate curator of the department of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Museum. He is a dinosaur and lizard expert, and has conducted paleontological field expeditions on many continents. Mark is well known for his work on the dinosaur discoveries of the expedition, including the embryo of an Oviraptorid and a nesting adult oviraptorid from Ukhaa Tolgod. |
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Demberelyin Dashzeveg Demberylin Dashzeveg is the co-leader of the Mongolian -American Museum expeditions. He received his doctoral degree in Moscow and is an international expert on fossil mammals. He is also a distinguished member of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences. "Dash" has spent over thirty-five years in the Gobi, and knows its most remote corners perhaps better than any living explorer. In recent years he spends much time in New York collaborating on the study of fossils recovered by the expedition. |
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James Clark Jim Clark (a.k.a. Notorious J.I.M.) is the Ronald Weintraub Assistant Professor of Biology at George Washington University. He is an expert on fossil crocodilians, dinosaurs, and pterosaurs (flying reptiles). Many of his discoveries, including an exquisite pterosaur from Mexico, have received widespread attention for their scientific importance. He has been a member of American Museum expeditions to the Gobi since 1991. |
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Guillermo Rougier Guillermo Rougier is a postdoctoral fellow in paleontology at the Museum. He is a leading scholar on early, Mesozoic mammals that lived during the time of the dinosaur. "Guige" hails from Argentina, and he has an expected liking for good meat and wine. On projects in Argentina he has found some spectacular fossil mammals, dinosaurs, and turtles. He drives the heavy Russian military truck with admirable skill. |
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Peter Makovicky Peter Makovicky is a graduate student at Columbia University and the Museum. He received his undergraduate training in his native Denmark. He is working on protoceratopsian dinosaurs for his Ph.D. dissertation, and has also worked with Mark and other specialists on aspects of theropod dinosaur evolution. Pete has previously done field work in Western Canada and Argentina, but this is his first trip to Mongolia. |
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Amy Davidson Amy Davidson is a Senior Principal Preparator at the American Museum of Natural History. She works for Mark Norell on dinosaurs from the Gobi and also on mammals for Mike Novacek, Guillermo Rougier and Ines Horovitz. She is married to James Carpenter-- a curator of entomology at the Museum who is currently collecting wasps in Central African Republic. She has a background in sculpture and was trained as a fossil preparator with Bill Amaral at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology. She has white skin which she assiduously protects from the sun. |
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Dashzeveg Saynbayer Dashzeveg Saynbayer , the son of Dashzeveg, is training hard to be a fossil excavator and preparator. He has spent appreciable time at the American Museum learning from Amy and other skilled preparators on the staff. This summer he will excavate a very large armored ankylosaur dinosaur from Ukhaa, which might be displayed by The Mongolian Academy in a Museum of Gobi fossils. Saynbayer also has an abiding interest in science fiction, murder mysteries, the Roswell incident, and the X-files. Some of his own fiction has been published in Mongolian newspapers. |
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Jonathan Geisler Jonathan Geisler is a graduate student at Columbia University and the Museum, currently pursuing his Ph.D. His past and current research focuses on the origin and evolution of bats and cetaceans, whales and dolphins. Jonathan was in Mongolia last year with his advisor Malcolm McKenna; however, this is his first year with Mike and Mark. He has been collecting fossils since the age of 7, although this is his first time prospecting in the Late Cretaceous. Although Jonathan has enormous potential to be a world class golfer, prolific gambler, and all around great guy, he prefers to sit back and let others do the talking. Jonathan likes to spend much time with Bolor. |
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Bolortsetseg Minchin Bolortsetseg Minjin has been accepted into the Ph.D. program at the City University of New York. She is going to study vertebrate paleontology but has not decided on her thesis topic. Bolor received her master's degree in invertebrate paleontology from Mongolian Technical University. Her thesis was on the Ordovician Corals of Mongolia. This is her third time working with this expedition. She has great skill finding small mammals. Bolor is the first Mongolian student working with the expedition to be accepted into a U.S. university. She will be an important part of this expedition for many years to come. Bolor likes to spend much time with Jonathan. |
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Murphy Stein Murphy Stein is an undergraduate at Dartmouth College, poised to enter his sophomore year after he soaks for at least a week in a nice, steamy bath. he is responsible for maintaining the satellite uplink between the expedition and the Musuem, and spends much of his time touching up photographs taken by Peter Langone and editing the day's dispatch. At all other times, he can be found next to the supply truck scavenging for food, or with his shirt off in the sun, methodically working on his tan. (Nobody's had the heart to tell him that his pasty white skin really isn't meant to look golden brown.) Once a strict vegetarian, he quickly embraced the fat-heavy diet, endorsed by Mark and Guillermo, as soon as he realized that resistance leads to starvation out here. He now craves Beef Jerky. |
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Peter Langone Peter Langone has been fascinated by photography since he was 15 years old. After attending the Fashion Institute of Technology, he moved to South Florida where he has worked as a photographer since the early 70's. Over the years he has worked with clients such as Mercedes-Benz, GM, Alamo, Avis, Ryder Trucks, Budweiser, Miller, Guinness, Fosters, AT & T, Marlboro, Kent, and Silver Sea Cruises. Peter has traveled around the world at least four times on assignment for his international clientele. He is divorced and has a 14 year-old son whom he loves dearly. Peter is at the top of his field and just an all around cool guy. |
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Sheera Sheera is the Mongolian cook who prepares the local dishes most suited for the tastes of Mongolian team members. She makes marvelous bread and has a very sweet disposition. |
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Temur Temur, alias "Elvis" and "Toldla (rabbit)" is a genius when it comes to driving, fixing and rescuing Russian military vehicles. He is short (about 5'4") and lively, with a sunny mood even in the toughest of times. You can tell something really bad has happened to a vehicle when he starts laughing. He loves cars and views any vehicle problem as a matter of entertainment. Temur hates seasoned food and almost died when he bit into a heaping tablespoon of wasabe. He has been with the expedition since 1994. |
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Ding Hai Ding Hai is our Mercedes mechanic from Beijing. He is skilled in all things automotive and shares a mechanical intuition with Temur that cuts across any language barrier. He is easygoing, with a great laugh. When not attending to the vehicles he has plenty of spare time to read books and play poker and other card games with Peter Langone. |
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Namdavah Namdavah is an experienced elder of the automotive world, and drives a Russian jeep (Waz) with great skill. He first worked with the expedition in 1995. |
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Ganhoika Ganhoika is our young gas tanker driver. This is his first big assignment for an extended expedition and he has improved his driving abilities on the job under some very tough conditions in the western Gobi. back to top |
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