It was late afternoon in August at the Khongil site, in the Gobi desert of Mongolia, where the stony ground yielded to an outcrop of craggy red sandstone holding the fossils and footprints. The Gobi is one of the world’s richest paleontological regions. Some of the most well-known dinosaurs were discovered here: the speedy Velociraptors of Jurassic Park fame and the strange humpbacked Deinocheirus with freakishly huge claws.