Flaming Cliffs One of the most famous dinosaur sites on Earth, this Cretaceous redbed sandstone was discovered in Mongolia's Gobi desert by Roy Chapman Andrews in his 1922 expedition. Known in Mongolian as Bayanzag, extensive discoveries of fossils such as protoceratops (whose skeletons some think was the model for the mythical monster of classical times known as a griffin), the first dinosaur eggs and oviraptor established it as an important site. The dinosaurs were trapped under collapsing dunes, as the Gobi was already a desert with a similarly harsh climate to today's. Access was blocked during the time of political turmoil, and later only allowed to Communist scientists until the fall of the wall in 1989 and Mongolia's independence allowed renewed exploration. Loz Image credit: Zoharby