ZOFIA KIELAN-JAWOROWSKA & NAYDIN DOVCHIN

NARRATIVE OF THE POLISH-MONGOLIAN PALAEONTOLOGICAL EXPEDITIONS 1963 — 1965

{PRZEBIEG POLSKO-MONGOLSKICH EKSPED YCJI PALEONTOLOGICZN YCH
1963 †19)

(Plates I — IVJ

Abstract. — Polish-Mongolian Palaeontological Expeditions to the Gobi Desert and Western Mongolia were organized in 1963 — 1965, by the Palaeozoological Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, and Biological Research In- stitute, Academy of Sciences of the Mongolian People's Republic in Ulan Bator. The organization of the expeditions, including: elaboration of scientific programme, terms of cooperation and leadership, division of costs, preparations for the expeditions, transport, workers, equipment, methods of field work and staff of the expeditions are described, The

detailed courses of three successive expeditions and their scientific results are given.

INTRODUCTION

The first palaeontological investigation of the Gobi Desert was undertaken by American scientists. In the years 1922 — 1930, the American Museum of Natural History in New York organized five successive expeditions to Mongolia, known as the Central Asiatic Expeditions, under the leadership of R. C. ANDREws. These expeditions worked on the territory now be- longing to the Mongolian People's Republic (Outer Mongolia) and the People"s Republic of China (Inner Mongolia). They assembled a collection of Cretaceous dinosaurs and Cretaceous and Tertiary mammals of gre'at scientific value. The results of the Central Asiatic Expeditions were published in a series entitled "Natural History of Central Asia" (e.g. BERKEY & MoRRIs, 1921; ANDREws, 1932, and others), and in a long series of smaller papers, which are still being published in "American Museum Novitates" and in "Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History".

A summary of the results of these expeditions is beyond the scope of the present paper. It should, however, be remembered that they carried out pioneering work in territory never before visited by a palaeontologist, and that they collected material which contributed greatly to our knowledge of the history of reptiles and mammals of Central Asia.

A second series of palaeontological expeditions to Mongolia was organized by Soviet palaeontologists. 1n 1941, the Committe; of Scientific Affairs of the Mongolian People's Re- public approached the USSR Academy of Sciences with a proposition to organize a palaeonto- 8 ZOFIA KIELAN-JAWOROWSKA & NAYDIN DOVCHIN

logical expedition to the Gobi Desert. Before the Institute of Palaeontology of the USSRAca- demy of Sciences could undertake the organization of such an expedition, the Second World War intervened.

The project was taken up again after the war, and three successive Soviet expeditions, under the leadership of J. A. EPREIvIOV, were sent to Mongolia in 1946, 1948 and 1949. These expeditions worked in the regions covered by the American expeditions 20 years before, and also explored some new territories.

The area most interesting palaeontologically, discovered by the Soviet expeditions, was the Nemegt Basin in Southern Gobi. In this basin, they came across a great cemetery of Upper Cretaceous dinosaurs, obtaining 10 complete skeletons of carnivorous and duckbilled dinosaurs (EPREMOV, 1948, 1954, 1955, 1963; MALEYEV, 1955a, 1955b; ROZHDEsTYENsKY, 1952, 1957a, 1957b). They also discovered an area of exposed Paleocene beds, which yielded a rich fauna of mammals. Another new region of palaeontological interest, discovered by the Soviet expe- ditions (RozHDEsTYENsKY, 1954), was the Dzereg valley in Western Mongolia, where they came across a very rich deposit of Pliocene mammals, the Altan Teli beds. The scientific results of these expeditions are published in various Soviet and Chinese palaeontological journals {Trudy Mongolskoy Kommissyi, Trudy Paleontologitscheskogo Instituta, Paleontologi- tscheskiy Zhurnal, Vertebrata Palasiatica). The collected material is of great value, both as a scientific collection and as museum exhibits.

In 1959 and 1960, the Academies of Sciences of both the Soviet Union and the People' s Republic of China organized joint palaeontological expeditions to the Chinese territory of Mongolia (Inner Mongolia), under the leadership of RozHDEsTvENSKY and CHow (CHow & ROZHDEsTYENSKY„1960; RozHDEsTvENsKY, 1961). They assembled a valuable collection of dinosaurs and Tertiary mammals, which are being elaborated by Soviet and Chinese palaeontologists.

A third series of palaeontological expeditions to Mongolia was organized by the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Sciences of the Mongolian People's Republic. In 1963, 1964 and 1965 three Polish-Mongolian Expeditions carried out excavatory work in Southern Gobi and Western Mongolia (KIELAN-JAwoRowsKA & KOWALSKI, 1965; IQELAN- JAwoRowsKA, 1966).

The idea of organizing the Polish-Mongolian Palaeontological Expeditions to Mongolia was born in the Palaeozoological Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences, during the Assembly of the representatives of the Academies of Sciences of the People's Democracies,