Zidong Dinosaur Museum

1. Zigong Dinosaur
Museum
Jānis Kevišs

2. The Zigong Dinosaur Museum is located in Dashanpu at Zigong
City, on the banks of a river that flows through the western-
China province of Sichuan. It is China's first museum located
at the actual burial site of dinosaurs and it covers 25,000
square meters.

3. 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.

4. 'Sichuan's dinosaurs are numerous and one finds a veritable nest
of them at Zigong.' Zigong is a famous city for salt production,
but it is also an important dinosaur fossil region in China. As a
famous saying goes, one finds a veritable nest of dinosaurs at
Zigong.

5. This place is eleven kilometers to the northeast of Zigong City. It
was discovered in 1972. The fossils are in a sandy layer of the
Meso-Jurassic period, from around 160,000,000 years ago. In
an area of around 3,000 square meters, more than 100
individual dinosaurs have been excavated, among which some
thirty are complete or relatively complete dinosaur skeletons.

6. The newly built Zigong Dinosaur Museum mostly exhibits fossils
of dinosaurs that have been excavated from the immediate
site. The exhibition is divided into three parts:

7. Part 1: introduces general knowledge about fossils, botanical
evolution, geologic periods, the evolution of dinosaurs and
species extinctions.

8. Part 2: introduces the group of dinosaurs from Dashanpu. In a
large space, viewers can see dinosaurs that stand 10 meters
high and are 20 meters long, as well as tiny dinosaurs.

9. Part 3: is the actual site of dinosaur burials, in an exhibition area
of 1000 square meters. This has dinosaur bones in their
original setting. Observers can look down from a railing above,
but can also go down into an underground room and touch
the fossils of ancient life, see the circumstances of the layers
and the ores, understand the wonders and marvels of the
creations of nature.