TEN-TON MONSTER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 557, 9 January 1929, Page 11

TEN-TON MONSTER

GOBI DESERT FIND EXPLORER’S DISCOVERY Life in the Gobi desert, in Mongolia, millions of years ago, and the discovery there of the bones of the largest animal known to science—a monster weighing ten tons—were described to ,a “Daily Mail” reporter recently by Mr. Roy Chapman Andrews, the American explorer. Mr. Andrews, who has just returned from his fourth expedition in the desert, said: — Our greatest discoveries this year were fossils. Bones of this new mammal. which lived eight of nine million years ago, show that it was 25ft long and 14ft high to the shoulders. It was as big as a freight car. We have the bones of about eight or ten of these monsters and one skeleton that is practically complete. The skeleton is so huge that it was found impossible to pack it, but we hope to recover it next year. This animal will not be named until it reaches the American Museum of Natural History. We also fojurd a mastodon —a prehistoric a jaw eight feet long shaped W«« a coal scoop. The front of its face is unlike anything we have seen before. It lived about 6,000,000 years ago. Among other finds were four Titanothere skeletons—animals that are something like the rhinoceros. These have only been found before in America, and this proves the migration that must have taken place In early times from Asia to America. Another strange find was the skeleton of an animal —a new type—with a skull shaped like a stock saddle, the pummell, or its nose, pointing straight up in the air and its mouth underneath. What It had In front of its face no one knows. We have always thought that traces of human life would be found In Central Asia, but so far we have not found anything very definite on the human side. Stone Age Culture We came across remarkable specimens of stone age culture, and there were traces that people lived there at least 20 or 25 thousand years ago. We found that they lived there In millions. and on the plateau there was evidence that they must have lived largely on birds and frogs. Mr. Andrews said they could only judge by the implements they found that human life existed there because no sign of caves was found.