The Zigong Dinosaur Museum is located near the Prefecture-level city of Zigong, China, in the township of Dashanpu. The museum sits on top of a large concentration of a diverse dinosaur assemblage. The museum claims the largest number of dinosaur fossils in the world and covers 25,000 square meters with a display area of 3,600 square meters.
In 1980s, vast quantities of dinosaur fossils were excavated in the Middle Jurassic Dashanpu Formation, 7 km north-east from downtown Zigong, including a dinosaur named after the township, Dashanpusaurus. Because of the unique and articulated (intact) bone remains, Zigong is important to paleontologists and dinosaur enthusiasts. The Zigong Dinosaur Museum (自貢恐龍博物館) was established in 1987, becoming the first museum based almost entirely on dinosaurs in Asia. Mounted specimens include Omeisaurus, Gigantspinosaurus, Yangchuanosaurus, Huayangosaurus and Xiaosaurus.
Famous quotes containing the word museum:
“When I go into a museum and see the mummies wrapped in their linen bandages, I see that the lives of men began to need reform as long ago as when they walked the earth. I come out into the streets, and meet men who declare that the time is near at hand for the redemption of the race. But as men lived in Thebes, so do they live in Dunstable today.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)