Shifting Sands

Mongolia is one of my favourite places, full of incredible landscapes, people and fossils. I have been tremendously privileged to travel here many times and to do paleontology research on Mongolian specimens. But enjoying these things responsibly means thinking about the future and building sustainability: collaborating equally, training students, and supporting new infrastructure.

So, I am incredibly excited to be co-leading a collaborative field project with the Institute of Paleontology in Mongolia, called Shifting Sands: Collaborative Exploration of a New Gobi Site to Build Mongolian Leadership in Science. The project is generously supported by a Rolex Grant through the Explorers Club.

In this first year of the project, we are visiting a new potential site that has never been visited by paleontologists. But it might be well known to locals: tire tracks on satellite images show people have driven through. Our main goals are to explore the site, collect any fossils we find, and document the extent of illegal excavations in the area, if any—the undocumented site is in a protected area and no sanctioned expeditions have ever taken place. If successful, we hope to expand the project as a way to train students and foster collaborative research.

We’ll be trying to post from the field on social media, using the hashtag #shiftingsands, so follow along to be the first to see this brand new site and the natural wonders it holds!