Right, so, we've packed everything,
and we're ready to head to the Gobi Desert.
So it's 4 o'clock in the afternoon, so we did some
last minute shopping and packing today. Everything's packed in
the truck over there.
Yeah, so we're taking two vans, a truck and the Unimog which is going to be carrying all the water
throughout the trip.
So let's jump in.
Oh a little detour.
So we're at Bayan Gobi, about 200 miles
Southwest of Ulaanbaatar, and you can see sand dunes coming up.
And camels.
Although I do want to ride camels, today is not the day.
We gotta keep moving.
Looks fun.
Alright. Last time we'll be on the road
for two weeks.
So we're about two hours away from Ukhaa Tolgod, driving through
the Gobi Desert, as you can see.
The Kamaz truck
has unfortunately gotten stuck
here in the washway.
So this morning Tamir and Chaluna
arrived from the town a hundred kilometers away
to get the part we need for the Kamaz.
So we should be able to get going on the road back to Ulaanbaatar
in a little bit.
Yay!
So after two days of driving
from Ulaanbaatar, we finally arrived
in the Ukhaa Tolgod region, which is a fossil-bearing locality
where a lot of important dinosaurs, mammals, and lizards
have been discovered in the last 20 years. In fact this year we celebrate
the 20th anniversary of the discovery of this region as
a fossil-bearing site, and it was discovered by
two AMNH paleontologists,
Dr. Mark Norell and Dr. Mike Novacek.
It's a beautiful view from up here.
In fact, fossils have been found all
throughout these redbeds, which can be
found all throughout the region,
including over there.
And these redbeds are where you find
animals, and fossils of animals that lived in the late Cretaceous.
It's about 70 to 80 million years ago.
So there's our camp over there, as you can see
and we'll be staying here for the next several days,
up to a week, to prospect or look
for any new exposed fossils.
And excavate
fossils out of the rocks
of the redbeds.