Largest dinosaur museum in China

Beijing: China has the world`s largest dinosaur museum, the Guinness World Records has confirmed. The Shangdong Tianyu Museum of Nature in Pingyi County, in east China`s Shandong Province, which opened in 2004 and is devoted to dinosaur and other prehistoric fauna, applied for a Guinness World Record in early June and received the confirmation yesterday, Deputy Curator of the museum Yin Shiyin told the official newsagency Xinhua. "It contains 301,389 sq ft of exhibition space, housing 1,106 dinosaur specimens and thousands of other ancient fossils," the London-based agency said in a certificate to confirm it as the world`s largest dinosaur museum. The dinosaur specimens are all represented by almost complete skeletons, including 368 psittacosaurid specimens, 391 dromaeosaurid specimens, 255 Anchiornis specimens, 22 Jeholosaurus specimens, and 70 other rare dinosaurs and unnamed dinosaur fossils, the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said. The Tianyu museum also houses tens of thousands of other ancient fossils, such as birds and fish fossils, the institute added. Prior to the new record, the museum had five other world ecords, including the longest silicified wood fossil, the biggest Sinosauropteryx fossil and the biggest amethyst cave, Yin said. A ceremony to mark the recognition will be held on September 28 at Tianyu in presence of officials from Guinness World Records. PTI