"The New York Times science editor John Noble Wilford has called it "the most celebrated fossil-hunting expedition of the twentieth century." Led by the world-renowned explorer Roy Chapman Andrews and financed by J.P. Morgan, Jr., John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Childs Frick, and a host of other Wall Street titans, the Central Asiatic Expeditions (1922-1930) comprised the most ambitious scientific venture ever launched from the United States. Under the auspices of the American Museum of Natural History, Andrews conducted five expeditions to the last uncharted corner of the world: the Gobi Desert of Outer and Inner Mongolia. Using automobiles supported by camel caravans, Andrews' expeditions stumbled upon unimagined scientific wonders: the Flaming Cliffs, dinosaur eggs, the first skeleton on Velociraptor (the terrifying killer of Jurassic Park fame), and a fossil treasure trove of other dinosaurs and extinct mammals.". "In Dragon Hunter, Charles Gallenkamp recounts these discoveries and the adventures that attended them. Filled with tales of Andrews and his team braving raging sandstorms and murderous bandits, enduring civil wars and political intrigue, and reveling in the fascinating world of Peking's foreign colony, Dragon Hunter also traces the religious controversy over evolution that the anti-imperialist conflicts involving China, Mongolia, and the United States that were sparked by Andrews' expeditions."--BOOK JACKET.