When I was a Junior in college, I took my very first paleontology class with the late Dr. Derek Main at the University of Texas in Arlington. During the beginning of the semester, we went over the history of paleontology in America, and I remember the day Roy Chapman Andrews was brought up.

“People claimed he was the person Indiana Jones was based on,” Dr. Main had said, which I later found out probably wasn’t true. Still, Andrews had a pretty epic quest across the Gobi, probably the first expedition of its kind. There were a lot of articles on the internet about him, detailing the amazing expedition team he lead through the desert, a train of jeeps and camels sporting the American flag, fighting off bandits along the way. Old black and white pictures showed the caravan, his team scouting over the Flaming Cliffs, and the iconic nest of Oviraptor eggs. This guy was like someone right out of an action movie, and it was all for the sake of science!

During my digging to find information about Andrews, I found out that he wrote an autobiography titled Under a Lucky Star, detailing his life as a naturalist and avid paleontologist. The book was thrilling in a way only a life of adventure and dinosaur hunting could be, and Andrews had a way of expressing his passion and tenacity that kept me wanting to learn more. While he talks in depth about his travels and experience with the cultures of Asia, he keeps most of his personal life close to the chest. There’s definitely a passion and love for the countries he called home for many years, but since this was written back in the 1940s, the cultural difference in political correctness standards does mar some of his messages. Knowing that going in, the book is still very fantastic and worth reading if you’re even a remote fan of paleontology.

Andrews discusses his falling in love with nature and the drive of pushing to Central Asia after reading Dr. W. D. Matthews’s Climate and Evolution paper. The paper was an elaboration on Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn’s theory that Central Asia was the “home of primitive man and the mother of much of the wildlife of Europe and North America”. Anthropology was actually what pushed Andrews to the Gobi, but what he would find would predate humans by about seventy million years.
In 1922, Andrews left China for his first expedition through the Gobi desert after years of gathering funding and support for the trip. Arriving in the land that he was sure held the keys to discovery, he wrote about how struck he was by the scenery:

“…a land of painted deserts dancing in mirage; of limitless grassy plains and nameless snow-capped peaks; of untracked forests and roaring streams Mongolia, a land of mystery, of paradox and promise!”

Of course, the mountains did have names, but Andrews tended to assume that since no one from the West had written anything about it, that the land was undiscovered and unclaimed. It’s worth noting that this book was written with admiration for the natural landscape, but Andrews doesn’t try and curb his American bias against cultures he doesn’t know or understand. His views on Mongolian customs and hygiene practices are worded a little harshly, even if he does note how much he admires the strength and will of the native population.

My favorite part of the book is when Andrews and his team is trekking through the Gobi fighting off bandits and finding his iconic fossils like oviraptor eggs (which he thinks are protoceratops eggs being stolen by oviraptor — hence the name). Each find is a treasure for him and reading about unearthing these amazing fossils from his point of view is infectious in its excitement. The history of the world during that time, especially in Mongolia, was trying and unfortunately a lot of violence was peppered throughout the landscape. Andrews witnessed a lot of death, not just the bandits that tried to raid their caravan, but also raids and attacks on villages . While his story is full of adventure and amazing paleontological finds, it does document some darker spots of human history in the area he was traveling.

Overall, the book is extremely fun and reveals a lot about a pioneer of paleontology’s life, career and point of view. While he was misguided in certain world-views, Andrews is a true adventurer and lover of history and nature. It’s hard not to find yourself wrapped up in how amazing his travels were, and the sense of wonder he presents while describing the landscapes of his travels is wonderful. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for the paleontologist who brought me into the world of Mongolian paleontology, and the doors that passion has lead me through.

“Adventure is just around the corner — and the world is still full of corners!”

• • Post by Markie Massey