A Life of Dangers

By Vernon Church

He was the rarest kind of great adventurer, a man who travels to remote corners of the world in a quest for knowledge. So if Roy Chapman Andrews is such a big deal, exactly where in the encyclopedia should a student look up his name? Look under paleontology.

In five expeditions to Central Asia from 1922 to 1930, Andrews discovered embryonic dinosaur skeleton in two eggs- conclusive proof that the extinct creatures were oviparous.

He also discovered the bones of a Baluchitherum, at the time believed to be the largest mammal ever. But you could also look under motion pictures. Andrews, who cut a dashing figure in broad brimmed hats and a holstered pistol, is believed to be the inspiration for Hollywood’s Indiana Jones.

From his rifle-toting days as a Wisconsin schoolboy, Andrews dreamed of working for the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. When he graduated from Beloit College in 1906, he came to the museum and offered to sweep floors. The director put him to work mixing clay and setting up exhibits. He soon moved onto more challenging work: exploring wild forests of Korea and pursuing whales in the Pacific, for example.

Still in his 20s, Andrews become a leading authority on whales and helped build the famous blue-whale model that still hangs in the American Museum of Natural History.

Next came five Central Asiatic expeditions - and worldwide fame for his discoveries. The largest excursion, made in 1925, boasted 40 man, 8 cars and more than 75 camels. The camels transported and dropped fuel, food and equipment along prearranged path so the cars and the scientists would never run out of gas. But short supplies were only part of the risk.

In a 1933 article for the National Geographic, Andrews described a more immediate danger. “Brigands must be considered in every expedition to the interior of Mongolia and China. They swarm like devouring locusts even up the walls of cities.”

Predictably, such a colorful figure inspired several controversies in the 1920s. French paleontologists disputed his claim to have discovered the world’s first dinosaur eggs; they said they’d found eggshells near Riviera years before. In the same period, the Chinese government was outraged when Andrews auctioned off a dinosaur egg for $5,000, which he gave to the museum.

Andrews was also accused of a subtle form of racism for his advocacy of a widely held theory that the origins of man appeared first in Asia, not black Africa- a position from which he later retreated. In 1935 Andrews become director of the museum whose laboratory he once offered to sweep, but held the post only for seven years.

He retired to devote his time to writing books and scientific papers about his explorations. In 1959 he wrote his last book, “In the Day of the Dinosaur.” Andrews died a year later, at 76. It was a life that would have satisfied even Indiana Jones.

Newsweek, No.24, 1992

 
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