National Geographic: Dinosaur Hunters

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Eighty million years ago,

disaster came to a world

ruled by dinosaurs.

It came in waves of

and and wind

that buried

every creature alive.

For eons,

the dinosaurs lay entombed

in a place that would

one day be called

the Gobi Desert

in a country named Mongolia.

Among the dead

was one of the strangest

dinosaurs that ever lived.

It was called Oviraptor.

It was swift, smart, lethal.

Now, only bones

tell us about its life.

And the vicious

world it lived in.

The bones have given us

a glimpse of those

ancient times.

A dim reflection of life

before history.

But there is more

to the story... still hidden

in the vast emptiness

of the Gobi.

Now an ambitious expedition

is traveling to

that distant desert

to uncover the secrets

of the Oviraptor's world.

They don't exactly

look like scientists.

Often, they're mistaken

for each other.

But Mike Novacek leads

the expedition,

along with colleague

Mark Norell.

They could be taken

for surfers;

but they're from

the American Museum

of Natural History -

scientists piecing together

an ancient jigsaw puzzle

of evolution and extinction.

To me it's so

obviously important,

I'm so emotionally

bound up in this.

I can't imagine why

a knowledge of our history of

where we come from isn't

important to human experience.

Could you imagine

what it would be like

to live in the late

and not know that extinction

actually existed?

There's also just

this sense of discovery.

I mean,

every bone that we find

tells us something about

how the world

was 80 millions years ago,

which is... pretty neat.

Just having a sense of history

of what the planet was like

and what the planet

has gone through,

I think, just increases

our appreciation

for our own existence.

Mike and Mark are about to journey

to the sun scorched badlands of the Gobi.

It's a desolate area -

a half million dusty

square miles of sand, scrub,

and redrock cliffs.

But it's a paleontologist's

version of heaven.

For this is where

the Oviraptors lived and died

and lay untouched

in the earth for millennia.

Then, in 1922, one of the

most famous scientific

expeditions in history

wound its way toward

Mongolia's dinosaur graveyard

Its leader was a charismatic

and...

controversial explorer

named Roy Chapman Andrews.

Like Mark and Mike,

he came from the

American Museum

of Natural History.

But Andrews was an

incurable publicity hound -

and a scientific cowboy.

Where his paleontologist

used a camel-hair brush,

Andrews hacked away with

a pick ax.

But he found one of the

richest dinosaur boneyards

in the world.

He returned with a spectacular

collection of fossils...

and a library

of stunning film images.

But in the 1920s,

Communists seized power

in Mongolia.

The open door to the West

slammed shut.

For the next 65 years,

the fabulous fossil fields

of the Gobi

were forbidden territory.

Now, everything's changed.

Only token symbols

of Russia's domination remain.

Finally,

Western scientists can return.

We don't want those onions?

They rot.

They rot in two days.

Mark and Mike were among

the first scientists

allowed in.

They're now back

for their sixth expedition

with the Mongolian Academy

of Sciences.

Three kilos?

Three kilos.

They have just enough supplies

for a short month,

and a long way to go...

retracing Andrews' footsteps

on their way to

one of the richest

concentrations of fossils

in the world -

a place called Ukhaa Tolgod.

Over a vast span of time,

Ukhaa Tolgod

was ruled by dinosaurs.

Dinosaur history

can be thought of

as a great empire

that lasted

a few hundred million years.

That's a significant

slice of the history of life.

Imagine that time,

from the moment the dinosaurs

appeared till now,

is a single day.

At midnight,

dinosaurs first walked earth.

They're flourishing at noon.

They don't go extinct

until five in the afternoon.

Time passes.

The first modern man

finally appears

a minute and a half

before midnight.

All of our recorded history

takes three and a half seconds

In the Gobi, time seems to

have stood still.

The Gobi is such a big place

and it basically has no life

support system.

We really have to bring

everything with us.

So all our food,

all our fuel

which we're carrying in

a fuel tanker,

all our supplies

have to be treated like we're

actually exploring

a polar region.

In such a vast area,

success is never certain.

Even getting there

can be a nightmare.

Roy Chapman Andrews

thought he'd solved

the problem in the '20s,

with a new piece of

technology.

When it was announced

that we were to attempt

a scientific exploration

of the Gobi Desert

with a fleet of motor cars,

men said that

we were little less than fools.

Only camels had been used

in that country.

We had 40 men,

eight motor cars

and 150 camels

to carry supplies.

It was the biggest land

scientific expedition

ever to leave

the United States.

Roy Chapman Andrews.

From China,

Andrews headed northwest.

He left Peking,

then crossed over the border

and drove deep into

the parched heart

of outer Mongolia.

Mongolia, a land of painted

deserts dancing in mirage.

Mongolia, a land of mystery,

of paradox and promise!

A thirsty land.

A land of desolation!

Gazelles, wild asses,

and wolves ranged

the marching sands.

Few explorers had been there

and they brought back tales

of thirst, cold, and hunger.

But Andrews found

one more thing... mud.

Our average speed was

only four miles an hour.

Rocks, ravines, washouts,

and ditches

followed one another

in rapid succession.

One might imagine that the

roads have gotten better.

They have not.

And even modern jeeps

aren't built

for a desert like the Gobi.

We have an electrical problem

and we don't know what it is.

It's not a very complicated

wiring plan.

It's a Russian jeep.

It's not like a Japanese

or an American car.

They're up and running.

But next,

it's a truck's turn.

Piston, huh?

We think it's piston

number six.

A critical breakdown could

have severe consequences.

End of the expedition,

if not the end of our lives.

Maybe we'll make it.

Oh, God.

With the nearest gas station

some 500 miles away,

and time already

getting tight,

things will have to go

smoothly from now on.

Oh, we're having

some mechanical problems.

We think it's a fuel pump.

But we're not sure.

This could be way bad.

Seems to me I got this thing

in there

without doing

the twisty deal.

Maybe we'll tow it

or abandon it.

Abandon it.

Get on with it.

We can't stay here

more than a day.

After more than

the vehicles all decide to

run at the same time.

As they enter the dusty

dinosaur fields of the Gobi,

they're traveling a long way

backwards in time.

Dinosaurs first appeared

some 230 million years ago,

in a world

with a different face.

The creatures were thriving

as South America

and Africa split apart.

About 75 million years ago,

in the late Cretaceous period,

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