Mongolia
Sand Origin
Ikh Nart, Gobi Desert
Random Sand Fact
The Gobi Desert is far less sandy than many people imagine. But one of its dunes may have preserved a fight for more than 70 million years.
A Velociraptor and a Protoceratops were found still locked in combat: the Velociraptor’s claw at its opponent’s throat and the Protoceratops’s jaws closed around its arm.
Researchers believe heavy rain had saturated 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 stone.
