Re: paleontologists

["Matthew Troutman" <m_troutman@hotmail.com>]

>Roy Chapman Andrews  (explorer...aka: Indiana Jones)


     OK,  lets set this straight : Roy Chapman Andrews was not a 
paleontologist.  He contributed little to any paleontology papers,  he 
was primarily a naturalist.  Andrews took some of the first photos of 
whales and discovered an " extinct " whale,  the Californian gray whale.  
Andrews also witnessed a pod of killer whales kill a live gray whale.  
Andrews was primarily an explorer that built up the collections of all 
parts of the AMNH.  He had many adventures ( so many of which I cannot 
fit them all into a single post ),  including one time when he was going 
up the Yaku River in Korea,  was late at a checkpoint,  and was declared 
dead!  Andrews looked back on this in bemusement and stated that the 
only thing that was strange about it was when he read about his own 
death in a newspaper.  Andrews contributed mainly to the whale 
collection at the AMNH,  and he built the giant blue whale model.  

Most of his early adventures ( including an instance when he was going 
to view a harpooning of a whale,  the whale swung his tail on the boat 
where Andrews was,  and Andrews was flung into shark infested water,  
having to fight off hungry sharks ) were on the seas,  but his later 
adventures were on land.  He caught malaria,  served in Mongolia during 
WWI and shot a group of bandits ( narrowly escaping death when a bullet 
passed through his sleeve ) ,  went through Siberia in the winter,  
chased down killer bandits in a Dodge car,  etc. 

The Central Asiatic Expeditions were not based totally on paleontology,  
but equally on geology,  entemology,  botany,  archaeology,  keeping a 
record of the Mongolian races,  etc.  As a "paleontologist" Andrews was 
impatient.  While Walter Granger ( a great paleontologist ) whisked a 
fossils with brushes,  Andrews chopped away with a pick-ax.  One 
specimen ( presumed Psittacosaurus nest ) was deemed RCAed after ROY 
CHAPMAN ANDREWS and the damge he did to it.  Andrews did no paleontology 
work and his work was purely neontological and based on how much fun it 
was ( his phrase for every experience,  even the bad ones, was, " I had 
a grand time " ).  

Roy Chapman Andrews.  Real-life Indiana Jones.  Intereseting person. 
Adventurer.  But not a paleontologist.  

By the way,  I could post a complete biography on Andrews,  with 
detailed accounts of his experiences,  anybody think I should?

Matt Troutman

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