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:
“The Museum is not meant either for the wanderer to see by accident or for the pilgrim to see with awe. It is meant for the mere slave of a routine of self-education to stuff himself with every sort of incongruous intellectual food in one indigestible meal.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)