In the 1960s, Poland and Mongolia mounted a joint paleontological expedition to the Gobi Desert. This was the third such major paleontological expedition to the country, following similar expeditions by American scientists in the 1920s and Soviet scientists in the 1950s.
Each expedition revealed amazing new specimens of dinosaurs and mammals from the Late Cretaceous. The American finds from the 1920s include the first fossils of Velociraptor, as well as the first dinosaur eggshell fossils found anywhere on Earth. The Soviet-Mongolian discoveries from the 1950s include the first fossils of the tyrannosaur Tarbosaurus.
The Polish-Mongolian team, not to be outdone, also found some extraordinary dinosaur fossils including a pair of giant arms from a theropod, or bipedal carnivorous dinosaur. The arms were named Deinocheirus mirificius, whose name means “marvelous terrible hands.” Each arm measured 240 cm (nearly eight feet) from shoulder joint to finger tips; the longest arm of any dinosaur that stood on two legs. The hands had three long fingers tipped with claws, making Deinocheirus seem like a horrifying monster.
”Terrible hands” Image by Everything DinosaurThe original specimen of Deinocheirus with Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska, the leader of the Polish-Mongolian team.
