Zigong Dinosaur Museum

Zigong Dinosaur Museum
自贡恐龙博物馆

Address: 268 Shenhaijing Road, Zigong, Sichuan province
Websites: 
www.zdm.cn (Cn)
Hours: 8:00-17:30 (no entry after 17:00)
8:00-18:00 on holidays (no entry after 17:00)
Ticket booking: (+86-813)5801235
General admission: 40 yuan

Thanks to its moderate temperatures, the Southwest Asian climate is perfect for the preservation of fossils, which is why Zigong has been the site of an incredible number of dinosaur finds. Arising from the colossal amount of bones is the Zigong Dinosaur Museum.

Opened in 1987, the museum is built on the actual site of a group of dinosaur fossils. The collection of prehistoric finds is arrayed over a spacious three floors. The most noteworthy of the displays is the open excavation site which shows dinosaur fossils dating back over 150 million years still in the ground. In the rest of the museum there are many singular fossils of various types, including a few mounted full skeletons.

The museum is located at the Dashanpu dinosaur fossils group site which has the world's largest collection from the mid-Jurassic Period. They were first discovered in 1972. In an area of over 3,000 square meters, more than 100 different dinosaur remains dating from the Mid-Jurassic Period have been excavated. Only twenty percent of the world's dinosaur fossils are from the Jurassic Period, and most of them are from the later period making these Mid-Jurassic Period fossils particularly valuable.

The Zigong Dinosaur Museum is divided into three parts -- an introduction hall of general knowledge, an exhibition hall of the group of dinosaurs from Dashanpu, and the actual site of dinosaur fossil discovery, where observers can look down from a railing above and go down into an underground room to touch the remains of ancient life.

As one of the largest museums in the world built on a discovery site, and the first dinosaur museum in Asia, the Zigong Dinosaur Museum is an ideal excursion for anyone interested in paleontology and history.