Since 1990, scientists from the American Museum of Natural History have traveled to Mongolia’s vast Gobi Desert each summer in search of fossils, continuing a tradition of Museum expeditions to the region that began in the 1920s. In 1993, Museum researchers working with Mongolian scientists uncovered one of the richest fossil beds ever found: Ukhaa Tolgod. The site produced hundreds of dinosaur, lizard, and mammal fossils from the Cretaceous period.
This month, a team led by the Museum’s Provost of Science Mike Novacek and Paleontology Division Chair Mark Norell is once again heading to the Gobi-and one of the team members, Museum researcher Jonah Choiniere, will be checking in by satellite phone every few days with expedition updates that will be tweeted by @AMNH.
The 2011 Margaret and Will Hearst Mongolian Paleontological Expedition includes Dr. Khand Yondon of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Dr. Robert Hill of the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine, Dr. Jingmai K. O’Connor of Beijing’s Institute for Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Dr. Roger B.J. Benson of Cambridge University, Michael D. Pittman of University College London, and Hong-yu Yi, a graduate student in the Columbia University-American Museum of Natural History doctoral program. For updates from the Gobi, follow the Museum on Twitter @AMNH and look for the hashtag #GobiExpedition.