Mongolia
Sand Origin
Ikh Nart, Gobi Desert
Random Sand Fact
In Mongolia, sand may have preserved a fight for more than 70 million years.
When researchers were digging in the Gobi Desert in 1971, they found two dinosaurs still locked in combat. A Velociraptor had its claw at the throat of a sheep-sized plant-eater, and the plant-eater had its jaws clamped around the predator’s arm.
Heavy rain had probably soaked the dune they stood on. The sand gave way and buried both animals alive, mid-fight.
What remains is a single moment, roughly 74 million years old, frozen in sand that turned inte stone.
