Among the most famous moments in the history of paleontology are the Central Asiatic Expeditions led by Roy Chapman Andrews in the early 1920s. These two expeditions had the initial goal of finding evidence of human evolution in Mongolia, but instead discovered many iconic dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts.
Written and illustrated by Brian Floca, Dinosaurs at the Ends of the Earth tells the story of these expeditions from the perspective of paleontology assistant George Olson, one of the many fossil hunters that made up Andrews’ team.
Floca includes many interesting details about the planning and work of the expeditions, such as the extensive team of camels that went on ahead of the vehicular contingent of the team in order to resupply them at key points.
Floca provides lovely paintings for each page of the book, ranging from broad panoramas to closeups of the excavations. Reconstructions of some of the dinosaurs discovered also appear at the end of the book and on the inside covers. The raptor dinosaurs are unfortunately depicted as scaly, but as this book came out in 2000, it is somewhat excusable given the prevailing paleoart conventions at the time.
I could have done with a bit more detail about the expeditions, and some mention of the Cenozoic creatures discovered would have been appreciated, too. Prehistoric mammals like Indicotherium and Andrewsarchus are just as interesting as dinosaurs, in my opinion, and I find their absence here lamentable, but what can you do. For what it is though, I think Dinosaurs at the Ends of the Earth still does a good job in conveying the nature and history of the expeditions, and I recommend it to anybody interested in the history of paleontology. For more books about famous paleontologists, check out Barnum’s Bones, Daring to Dig, She Found Fossils, and Science Comics: Dinosaurs, Fossils and Feathers.
Dino Dad Reviews 