10 Real-Life Archaeologists More Badass Than Indiana Jones

4. Roy Chapman Andrews, Dinosaur Hunter

What is it that makes Indiana Jones who he is? Well, it's mostly the dichotomy between his stuffy establishment day-job and the free-wheeling, death-defying adventures he goes on to facilitate that archaeologist profession he has on his passport. It's a dichotomy that Roy Chapman Andrew also straddled, as he spent time as both director of the American Museum Of Natural History and as a nine-year-old with a shotgun. An early interest in hunting and taxidermy lead to his later career as a naturalist, which saw him leading a series of expeditions through the China into the Gobi Desert and Mongolia €“ where, amongst other things, he discovered what are considered to be the first-known fossil dinosaur eggs. Andrews is apparently the main inspiration for Indiana Jones, being an impeccable performer who had many of his adventures filmed €“ so he was on the big screen a good half century before Harrison Ford. He was an explorer, hunter, and archaeologist who ventured into some of the most dangerous territories of his age, fighting off Mongolian attack, apparently a crack shot with a pistol.