The Road of Winds

The Road of Winds is a non-fiction book by Ivan Efremov about his three years' travel in Mongolia (1946–1949) when he was the head of the Joint Soviet-Mongolian Paleontology Expedition.

During the expedition, Ivan Efremov conceived a book. In the "The Road of Winds" published in the mid 1950s, he wrote about excavations, his colleagues, as well as the harsh nature of Mongolia. A new generation of paleontologists grew up with this book.

One of his most important predictions enabled Ivan Efremov to create the science of taphonomy, i.e. the theory of the stages and patterns of living organisms turning into fossil remains. His speculations were proved true during three expeditions to Mongolia under his leadership in 1946 -1949. The results of the expeditions turned to be really epochal. In the Cretaceous sediments in the middle of the desert, the experts found so many bones of dinosaurs and other prehistoric inhabitants of the Earth, that they had to be taken to Moscow in many railway cars. The Russian Academy of Sciences arranged the display of some of those finds by Ivan Efremov at the Moscow Paleontological Museum and Orlov Museum. Moreover, excavations in Mongolia are still going on to this day.