TIMELINE of Expeditions
in Outer and Inner Mongolia                      
* Expeditions to Outer Mongolia are indicated in italics.

1922-1930: Five American Museum expeditions led by Roy Chapman Andrews cross Inner Mongolia and reach Outer Mongolia. The first dinosaur discoveries are made in Inner Mongolia. The largest of these expeditions was comprised of a team of 40 people. Although the main purpose of these expeditions is paleontology, zoologists, botanists, geographers, topographers and geologists also participate. The expedition teams travel in a caravan of field cars and camel caravans which carry gasoline and heavy equipment. No large scale dinosaur skeletons are brought back because transport is so difficult. More than 100 reptile and a few tiny mammal skulls are unearthed. The discoveries from this expedition series include the first dinosaur eggs, first nests, and the dinosaurs Protoceratops and Velociraptor. (From the late 1920s to the late 1980s, scientists from the U.S. were not allowed to collect fossils in Mongolia because of political conflicts.)

192?:  Sino-Swedish expeditions led by Sven Hedin followed the Silk Route

1941: USSR is invited by Mongolian People’s Republic to participate in an expedition, but WWII ended preparations

1948, 1949: Soviet/Mongolian expeditions, led by Professor Efremov to south and southeastern Gobi; in the Nemegt Valley the expedition discovers big dinosaur graveyard; 120 tons of material collected during 3 years. Discoveries include: duckbilled dinosaurs, carnivorous dinosaurs (Tarbosaurus), armored dinosaurs

1957-59: Sino-Soviet expeditions to Inner Mongolia. The last of these is prematurely terminated by a rift in political relations

1963: Mongolian/Polish expeditions, purpose: to survey areas in the southeastern and south Gobi and identify richest areas for subsequent field work

1964: Mongolian/Polish expedition, led by Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska. Discoveries included: paychysephalosaurs, giant sauropods,

1971: Polish and Mongolian paleontologists discover the entwined skeletons of a Protoceratops and a juvenile Velociraptor in the Gobi Desert, most likely locked in mortal combat.

1990: Mongolia invites the American Museum of Natural History to reinstate excavations in the Gobi desert.

1990-93: Chinese-Canadian expeditions co-led by Canadian Phil Currie explore sites in Inner Monglia.

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