Best Mongolia
Mark A. Norell is an American vertebrate paleontologist who served as the curator of fossil reptiles at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. He is known for his extensive fieldwork in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia, leading expeditions that uncovered numerous well-preserved Cretaceous fo...
The Gobi Desert is a vast, cold winter desert and brushland region spanning parts of northern China and southern Mongolia. Encompassing roughly 1.3 million square kilometers, its terrain is primarily composed of exposed bare rock rather than sand. The region sits on a high plateau and experiences ex...
Velociraptor mongoliensis was a small dromaeosaurid theropod that lived in what is now Mongolia during the Late Cretaceous. Specimen IGM 100/25 forms part of the Fighting Dinosaurs fossil, which preserves a Velociraptor grappling with a Protoceratops, including the predator's enlarged sickle-shaped...
The Ubsunur Hollow Steppe is a geographically distinct basin located on the border between Mongolia and the Russian republic of Tuva. It is part of the Uvs Nuur Basin, a UNESCO World Heritage Site inscribed in 2003 based on its biological and ecological diversity. The region features a range of ecos...
The Mongolian Steppe is a vast temperate grassland region primarily located within Mongolia. It’s notable for its historical significance as the heartland of the Mongol Empire and continues to support nomadic pastoralism today. The steppe provides grazing lands for herders and offers unique insights...
The Mongolian Plateau Steppe is a large, high-altitude temperate grassland located primarily in Mongolia and parts of China. This expansive region played a crucial role in shaping East Asian history, notably as the homeland of the Mongol Empire. It’s characterized by its vast open spaces and unique...
Altangerel Perle is a Mongolian paleontologist known for his research on the dinosaur fossils of the Gobi Desert. He has co-described several theropod dinosaurs, including Erlikosaurus andrewsi, a therizinosaur, and Achillobator giganticus, a dromaeosaurid, both named from Late Cretaceous Mongolian...
The Eastern Mongolian Steppe is a vast temperate grassland ecoregion spanning the eastern region of Mongolia. Characterized by rolling plains and sparse tree cover, it represents one of the largest remaining undisturbed steppe ecosystems on Earth. The area supports massive populations of Mongolian g...
The Flaming Cliffs, also called Bayanzag, are a fossil-rich area of red and orange sandstone in Mongolia's Gobi Desert. Expeditions led by Roy Chapman Andrews for the American Museum of Natural History worked there during the 1920s and uncovered important Cretaceous fossils, including dinosaur nests...
Sergei Kurzanov is a Russian paleontologist associated with the Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. During the 1970s and 1980s, he participated in extensive Soviet-Mongolian paleontological expeditions in the Gobi Desert. Kurzanov's research focused heavily on the...
The Orkhon Valley Steppe is a vast expanse of grassland in Mongolia representing a crucial crossroads of nomadic empires. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage site, it preserves evidence of the Turkic and Mongol Khaganates’ power through monumental architecture like palaces and burial mounds. Archaeol...
The Khangai Mountains Alpine Meadow is a highland ecoregion in central Mongolia, notable for moist alpine grasslands above the surrounding dry steppe.
Bolortsetseg Minjin is a Mongolian paleontologist known for her work on dinosaur fossils from the Gobi Desert. She founded the Institute for the Study of Mongolian Dinosaurs and has been active in efforts to repatriate Mongolian dinosaur specimens that had been removed from the country. Minjin has a...
The Tsagaan Salaa petroglyphs are located in Bayan-Ölgii Province in western Mongolia, within the Altai mountain range near the Chinese border. They form part of the Mongolian Altai rock art complex, which was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2011 and includes sites across several valley...
Tarbosaurus bataar was a large tyrannosaurid theropod from the Late Cretaceous Nemegt Formation of Mongolia. It had a massive skull, robust teeth, powerful hind limbs, and very small two-fingered forelimbs, and it was closely related to Tyrannosaurus. Numerous specimens representing different growth...
The Mongolian-Manchurian steppe encompasses a vast temperate grassland region spanning Mongolia, northeastern China, and parts of Russia. This expansive ecoregion, influenced by the Gobi Desert’s proximity, is characterized by its unique soil composition and dominant grasses. It supports diverse wil...
Baga Oigor petroglyphs in Bayan-Ulgii, Mongolia, form part of the UNESCO-listed Mongolian Altai rock art complex, containing over 10,000 individual figures.
Protoceratops andrewsi is a small ceratopsian from the Late Cretaceous Gobi Desert of Mongolia, known from abundant specimens including eggs collected during 1920s American Museum of Natural History expeditions.
The Story of the Weeping Camel, released in 2004, depicts a family’s efforts within the Gobi Desert to rescue a young white Bactrian camel. Directed and written by Byambasuren Davaa and Luigi Falorni, the film portrays a situation involving a calf separated from its mother. It is a docudrama explori...
The Nemegt Basin is a fossil-rich region of the Gobi Desert in Mongolia known for Late Cretaceous sedimentary formations and major dinosaur discoveries. Fossils recovered from the basin include specimens assigned to Tarbosaurus, Therizinosaurus, and Deinocheirus, along with remains of other dinosaur...
Oviraptor philoceratops was a small oviraptorosaurian theropod described by Henry Fairfield Osborn in 1924 from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia. Its type specimen, AMNH 6517, was found above a nest that was initially attributed to the ceratopsian Protoceratops, inspiring the misleading name meaning...
Therizinosaurus cheloniformis was a large therizinosaurid theropod that lived during the Late Cretaceous in what is now Mongolia. It is known from incomplete remains, especially enormous forelimb elements and elongated, strongly curved hand claws, some of the longest claws known among terrestrial an...
Khoit Tsenkher Cave is located in Khovd Province in western Mongolia and contains some of the earliest known rock art in Central Asia. The cave walls feature polychrome paintings of animals rendered in red and brown pigments, including depictions of mammoths, ostriches, ibex, and camels. The artwork...
Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park is a large protected area in Mongolia's South Gobi region, established in 1993 and covering roughly 27,000 square kilometers. Its landscape includes desert steppe, rocky mountains, dunes, canyons, and sites containing fossils, rather than only open sandy desert. Nota...
The Altai Tavan Bogd Steppe is a remote high-mountain steppe area within Mongolia’s Bayan-Ulgii province. It features extensive alpine meadows and significant archaeological sites including ancient petroglyphs. This region is particularly valuable for researchers studying Mongolian steppe ecosystems...
The Inner Mongolian Steppe encompasses a vast temperate grassland within the autonomous region of Inner Mongolia, China. This expansive area is notable for its unique ecosystem supporting diverse flora and fauna, including nomadic pastoralism historically practiced by Mongolians and Han Chinese comm...
Rinchen Barsbold was a pioneering paleontologist specializing in the dinosaurs of Mongolia. His extensive work in the Gobi Desert significantly advanced our understanding of theropod evolution, particularly through his foundational research on oviraptorosaurs beginning in 1976. He is most notably re...
The Khangai Mountains Forest Steppe is a Mongolian ecoregion where Siberian larch forests alternate with grassland, marking a taiga-steppe transition.
Gallimimus bullatus is a large ornithomimid theropod from the Late Cretaceous Nemegt Formation of Mongolia, named in 1972. It reached roughly 6 meters in length and had a small toothless head, long neck, powerful hindlimbs, and elongated forelimbs with three-fingered hands. Its lightly built skeleto...
The Mongolian-Manchurian Grassland is a WWF ecoregion covering eastern Mongolia, northeastern China, and a portion of southeastern Russia. It is one of the largest remaining temperate grasslands in Asia, supporting pastoral nomadism and large herds of grazing mammals. The ecoregion features cold win...
