Description: "Dragon Hunter" recounts the story of a true-life Indiana Jones, Roy Chapman Andrews, who led "the most celebrated fossil-hunting expedition of the twentieth century" -- in the words of The New York Times' science writer, John Noble wilford. Under the auspices of New York's American Museum of Natural History, Andrews organized a series of five scientific expeditions from 1922-1930 to Outer and Inner Mongolia, initiating the first systematic study of the last unchartered corners of the earth: the mysterious Gobi Desert. Andrews' team brought to light a wonderland of fossils ("dragon bones", according to the local Chinese), one of the richest respositories of dinosaurs and extinct mammals ever discovered, including the first fossil dinosaur eggs. Charles Gallenkamp, who spent ten years researching and writing "Dragon Hunter", brings Andrews vividly back to life in this colorful story -- a story not just of scientific discovery, but of danger and adventure. The expeditions took place against the backdrop of Chinese civil war, and Andrews and his heavily-armed crew had to tangle with Chinese warlords and fight off murderous bandits in addition to braving the Gobi's violent sandstorms and blizzards. Although the main focus of the book is very much on the Central Asiatic Expeditions in the '20s, "Dragon Hunter" tells Andrews entire life story, making the case for Andrews' place among the forefront of 20th-century explorers, alongside Peary, Scott, Amundsen, Byrd, Shackleton & Lindbergh.

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