“The Oviraptor - a creature that measured some 8 feet in length, its razor claws were deadly weapons of protection, guarding its offspring from constant danger”In 1922 American palaeontologist Roy Chapman Andrews led the first Western archaeological expedition into Mongolia’s Gobi Desert and uncovered one of the richest dinosaur graveyards in the world.
A changing political climate forced him to leave before he had even scratched the surface of this buried treasure; only since the fall of Communism have Western scientists been allowed back.
This hour-long National Geographic film traces the 1997 journey of two palaeontologists from the American Museum of Natural History as they retrace Chapman’s steps and unearth some groundbreaking finds of their own. Among these fossils is the skeleton of a female Oviraptor and her nest of a dozen eggs and two Oviraptors holding hands, named Romeo and Juliet.
The chronicle of the contemporary dig is interspersed with archival footage from Chapman’s expedition and impressive 3-D animation that re-creates what this vast Asian desert may have looked like when Oviraptors, Ankylosaurs, Protoceratops, and other dinosaurs made it their home.
With spectacular on-location filming, archival footage from archaeological expeditions and impressive computer animation, it’s an amazing journey back in time to a lost world where ancient giants once roamed.
Reviews:
“I really like how this movie delves into what our best hypotheses are concerning the Oviraptor and how we construct that knowledge. It also does a wonderful job delving into what it is like to be a palaeontologist. My almost 5 and almost 3 year olds just got this from the library and have watched it twice now. They love it, especially my almost 5 year old (a girl who prefers dinosaurs over princesses). I appreciate the focus on the quest for knowledge and the fact that there isn’t a whole bunch of sensationalism. Really thinking about how we know about dinosaurs and what they must have been like is exciting. This movie stays there and doesn’t go for the dinos eating dino approach that lots of other movies take. This movie really is interesting and educational for the whole family.”
“National Geographic does it again! Exceptionally valuable footage of the American Museum of Natural History’s car & camel expedition from Peking into the heart of Mongolia in the 1920s is presented as background to this documentary coverage of the most recent American expeditions into the Gobi. The excitement of discovery of new fossil fields and a light hearted peak into the life of dinosaurs is most entertaining and informative. Additionally, the independent country of Mongolia, known to travellers as Outer Mongolia to differentiate from the Chinese occupied ‘Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region’, provides palaeontologists with the most varied and highest quality dinosaur and mammal fossils known anywhere. Though old bones were never an interest of mine, nor have I every been attracted to films like Jurassic Park, this adventure made me eager to pack my bags and jump the next camel train to Mongolia. And not just to look for dinosaur bones. Mongolia is also one of the few unspoiled parts of the globe and only recently freed from the isolation imposed on it by the former Soviet Union. Well worth a look!”
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