Explorations in Mongolia: a review of the Central Asiatic expeditions of the American Museum of Natural History1927

Narrative style account of a 1925 expedition into Mongolia. From Kalgan, via Pekin, they travelled (innovatively using cars) into the north-west region. This expedition was motivated by Henry Osborn's theory that the high plateau of Central Asia was a cradle for many mammalian species. Around 40 people were involved in the interdisciplinary work; moving through the Gobi Desert with 125 camels and 7 cars. Four units focused on specific tasks.

New topographic maps were produced as previous ones were based on unreliable proverbial accounts. They used speedometers as a way to measure distance, and topographers, it seems, were mapping as they were travelling, using cars as reference points for their stadia rods. At the beginning palaeontology was heavily emphasized. The expedition established the region was the home of most dinosaurian reptiles from the Jurassic to Pleistocene periods. This is evidently an outdated assertion to make nowadays. They obtained over a thousand fossil specimens. Andrews highlights a few, and mentions that the dinosaur eggs discovered in this expedition sparked popular interest at the time.

Archaeology is also reviewed. Andrews explains that traces of the presence of prehistoric cultures were found across the expedition's entire route. For example: burial structures, necklaces ornamented with dinosaur egg shells, and so on. The Gobi Desert was inhabited by humans during the Stone Age. For botany, over 500 living plants were collected, and palaeobotanical evidence hinted at the existence of a sequoia forest, although parts of the region were desertic even then. Geologically, results on a giant batholith, climate change, and stratigraphic columns are mentioned. They also stole tens of thousands of animals.

The pictures are quite nice, it really looks like there was a lot of flat terrain (which RCA says made car travel possible), with cliffs and other rocky mountainous surfaces. Quite an enjoyable read, I like how it seems almost mundane compared to how explorers are portrayed in media, although RCA does say that the expedition was described as luxurious.