THE JOURNEY TO MONGOLIA

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Next Stop: Mongolia

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Mike Novacek

You almost can’t get farther away from New York than Ulaanbaatar.

Mark Norell
scrapbook page with labels and pictures

map of Mongolia

Ulaanbaatar is thousands of miles from New York City, and the journey there takes about three days by plane. Along the way, the team stops in Tokyo (Japan) and Beijing (China). And that’s just getting to Ulaanbaatar. Ukhaa Tolgod, one of the team’s main destinations in the Gobi Desert, is still three days of difficult driving away.

map of Mongolia with labels for towns and villages, fossil localities, and expedition routes
large metal storage unit sheds

expedition storage

Because the Museum team members return to Mongolia every summer, we built a compound in Ulaanbaatar to store big things such as trucks, equipment, and plaster between expeditions.

Dash smiling with sunglasses and baseball cap on

our guide

Since 1990, the Museum team has worked closely with Mongolian paleontologist Demberelyin Dashzeveg (nicknamed “Dash”) to organize fossil-hunting trips to the desert.

most of the team posing in the grass

the team

In Ulaanbaatar, the Museum team meets up with the Mongolian team. There are about 15 people in all, including paleontologists, geologists, fossil preparators, doctoral students, drivers, and expert car mechanics.

Image Credits:

All photos, courtesy of AMNH; Mongolia map, Ed Heck/ AMNH