Roy Chapman Andrews

Roy Chapman Andrews.

Roy Chapman Andrews (born January 26, 1884 in Beloit , Wisconsin , † March 11, 1960 in Carmel , California ) was an American researcher , adventurer, paleontologist and director of the American Museum of Natural History .

He was best known for his expeditions through divided China in the early 20th century, as well as to the Gobi Desert and Mongolia . The expeditions brought a wealth of new knowledge and finds of dinosaur eggs.

Andrews' almost fatal clashes are widely reported, including with whales, sharks, pythons and armed Chinese bandits. He was mistakenly declared dead several times. Douglas Preston of the American Museum of Natural History wrote:

Andrews is said to be the model for the character Indiana Jones . Andrews was a perfect self-promoter. He designed his image and lived it infallibly - there were no stains on his white vest. Roy Chapman Andrews: famous researcher, dinosaur hunter, an example of Anglo-Saxon virtues, marksman, fighter against Mongolian robbers, the man who coined the term " Outer Mongolia ".

Early life and education

Roy Chapman Andrews was born on January 26, 1884 in Beloit, Wisconsin, at 419 St. Lawrence Avenue. As a child he explored the surrounding forests, fields and bodies of water and began to develop his shooting skills. He learned the art of taxidermy himself and later used this hobby to fund his studies at Beloit College , where he soon became a member of Sigma Chi , one of the largest male student associations in the United States.

On March 31, 1905, during his junior year of college, Andrews sailed the Rock River with friend Monthy White . The weather conditions were more than bad, so that their boat overturned in the rough river. While Andrews survived, his friend died in the cold water. After graduating from college the following year, Andrews used the money he'd earned from taxing animals to fund a trip to New York City , where he sought a position at the American Museum of Natural History . After being told that there were no open apprenticeships, he took a job as a janitor in the taxidermy department of the museum and began collecting samples for the same in his spare time. In the following years he worked and studied in parallel, earning his degree in zoology from Columbia University .

Professional career

From 1909 to 1910 Andrews traveled to East India aboard the USS Albatross , collecting snakes and lizards and observing marine animals. He married Yvette Borup in 1917. Andrews and his wife led the zoological expedition through much of western and southern Yunnan , as well as many other provinces in China. In his book "Camps and Trails in China" he recorded their experiences. Between 1912 and 1914 he researched gray whales in the port city of Ulsan in southern Korea.

In 1920 he began planning his expedition to Mongolia , during which he traveled west from Beijing with a fleet of Dodge automobiles . In 1922, his expedition discovered the fossil remains of an Indricotherium (later renamed Paraceratherium ), a huge hornless rhinoceros , which was returned to the museum and reached it on December 19 of the same year.

On July 13, 1923, the expedition was the first to discover fossilized dinosaur eggs in the world . Originally it was assumed that these were the eggs of the ceratopsier Protoceratops . In 1995, however, it turned out after further investigations that the eggs are to be assigned to the theropod Oviraptor .

Walter W. Granger, for his part, discovered a skull that was dated to the Cretaceous . In 1925, the museum informed the expedition participants that it was a mammalian skull, that it was particularly rare and therefore valuable. More finds followed. No further expeditions took place between 1926 and 1929. In 1928, the Chinese authorities claimed the findings. The expedition planned for 1929 was stopped. It was not until 1930 that he managed to find more mammal fossils on a final trip . Andrews returned to the United States later that year, where he divorced his wife, with whom he had two sons. Sixty years after Andrews' first expedition, the American Museum of Natural History was invited by the Mongolian government to resume its research.

In 1927 he was awarded the title of Honorary Scout by the Boy Scouts of America , an award that was introduced in the same year and has so far only been awarded to a further 18 carriers. This award was given to "American citizens who, through their achievements in competition with nature, discoveries and desirable adventures, are of such outstanding character that they inspire the imagination of our youth ..." . Also in 1927 he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society .

Andrews joined the Explorers Club in New York in 1908, four years after it was founded. He later held the office of president in this association from 1931 to 1934.

In the same year (1934) Andrews finally became director of the American Museum of Natural History. In his book "The Business of Exploring" he wrote:

"I was born to be an explorer ... There was never any decision to make. I couldn't do anything else and be happy. "

“I was born to be an explorer […] There was never an alternative for me. I couldn't have done anything else and been so fulfilled. "

In 1942 Andrews settled in Carmel-by-the-Sea , California , and wrote about his life there during his retirement. He died there in 1960. He was buried in Oakwoad Cemetery in his hometown of Beloit.

Books

• Monographs of the Pacific Cetacea . 1914-1916
• Whale Hunting With Gun and Camera . 1916
• Camps and Trails in China . 1918
• Across Mongolian Plains . 1921
• On The Trail of Ancient Man . 1926
• Ends of the Earth . 1929
• The New Conquest of Central Asia . 1932
• This Business of Exploring . 1935
• Exploring with Andrews . 1938
• This amazing planet . 1939
• Under a lucky star . 1943
• Meet your ancestors. A Biography of Primitive Man . 1945
• To Explorer Comes Home . 1947
• My Favorite Stories of the Great Outdoors Editor . 1950
• Quest in the Desert . 1950
• Heart of Asia: True Tales of the Far East . 1951
• Nature's Way: How Nature Takes Care of Her Own . 1951
• All About Dinosaurs . 1953
• All About Whales . 1954
• Beyond Adventure: The Lives of Three Explorers . 1954
• Quest of the Snow Leopard . 1955
• All About Strange Beasts of the Past . 1956
• In the Days of the Dinosaurs . 1959

German

• On the trail of prehistoric man. FA Brockhaus, Leipzig 1927.
• With harpoon, rifle and spade. A researcher's life today. FA Brockhaus, Leipzig 1931.
• Dinosaurs in the Gobi. FA Brockhaus, Leipzig 1951. (From: On the trail of primitive man. FA Brockhaus, Leipzig 1927)

swell

1. ^ Andrews is allegedly the real person that the movie character of Indiana Jones was patterned after. Andrews was an accomplished stage master. He created an image and lived it out impeccably — there was no chink in his armor. Roy Chapman Andrews: famous explorer, dinosaur hunter, exemplar of Anglo-Saxon virtues, crack shot, fighter of Mongolian brigands, the man who created the metaphor of 'Outer Mongolia'. Preston, Douglas J. (1993). Dinosaurs in the Attic: An Excursion Into the American Museum of Natural History. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-10456-1 ., Pp. 97-98
2. ↑ (August 29, 1927) "Around the World" . Time (magazine). Retrieved on October 24, 2007
3. ^ Member History: Roy C. Andrews. American Philosophical Society, accessed December 1, 2018 . 

• Dragon hunter ; Charles Gallenkamp biography (2001)

Web links

Commons : Roy Chapman Andrews  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Official website of the Roy Chapman Andrews Society
• Literature by and about Roy Chapman Andrews in the catalog of the German National Library