On one nest of eggs, Andrews found the skeleton of a small theropod dinosaur spread over the eggs. Because he believed that the eggs belonged to Protoceratops, he assumed that the theropod dinosaur had been killed in the act of robbing the nest of the eggs. He sent the nest and the theropod skeleton back to the American Museum, where Osborn named the theropod Oviraptor, meaning "egg hunter" or "egg stealer". For years, no-one questioned that this dinosaur had been caught in the act of egg theft.
In the 1990's, the American Museum sent another group of paleontologists to the Gobi Desert to dig up dinosaur bones. American Museum paleontologst Michael Novacek wrote about the 1990 to 1995 expeditions into the Gobi, as well as Andrews's earlier expeditions in Dinosaurs of the Flaming Cliffs (1996), and Time Traveler (2002). In 1993, they were able to refute the earlier, negative picture of Oviraptor. Oviraptor was the mother of the eggs that Andrews found, and she was killed as she protected her eggs! Poor Oviraptor is stuck with her "egg hunter" name (see my article "Brontosaurus versus Apatosaurus, about how biologists give animals scientific names), but maybe not her negative reputation.
When Andrews returned from his last expedition into the Gobi Desert, he became the director of the American Museum for several years, but was eventually asked to step down. He was a prolific writer, writing many scientific works as well as popular books about his expeditions into the Gobi, and his other works. He died on June 3rd, 1960, having lived a very full and adventurous life.
Many of Roy Chapman Andrews's books can still be found in used book stores, although they were the epitome of our understanding of paleontology and anthropology at the time of their publication, the information in them is fairly outdated, but they can make for an interesting read. The Business of Exploring, New Conquest of Central Asia (1932), On the Trail of Ancient Man, Meet Your Ancestors (1945), All About Whales, All About Dinosaurs, Camps and Trails in China, Under a Lucky Star (autobiography, 1943), An Explorer Comes Home (autobiography, 1947)
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