Hunt for fossils and rare species

The expedition will draw heavily upon local knowledge

An expedition from Dorset is to travel to Mongolia in the hope of discovering rare fossils and endangered wildlife.

A group of nine volunteers led by Steven Ballantyne, of the Dorset-based Scientific Exploration Society, will leave for the Gobi Desert on 17 June.

The four-week project aims to locate a rare fossil skeleton and support breeding programmes for endangered species of bear and camel.

The expedition is the third in a series intended to forge links with Mongolia.

Mystery dinosaur

The team of people will survey the region's flora and fauna and help with breeding programmes for the endangered Gobi Bear and Bactrian Camel.

There are only about 25 and 950 respectively of each species left in the wild.

The group also hopes to solve one of the mysteries encased in the Natural History Museum in London.

Mr Ballantyne said the museum holds two replica fossilized arms from an unknown species of dinosaur.

If it is too big for the team to get out, then we will get GPS readings Steven Ballantyne

Somewhere in the remote region the group intends to explore, Chinese scientists discovered the skeleton of an unknown species of dinosaur, without arms.

Mr Ballantyne said: "We are going to try and find that same skeleton.

"If it is too big for the team to get out, then we will get GPS readings."

He admitted that finding a lone skeleton in the vastness of the Gobi Desert -- even one as big as a dinosaur -- may present certain problems.

Mr Ballantyne joked: "We can roughly pin point where this is, within a ten-mile radius. Roughly."