The world’s first museum dedicated to pterosaurs—the winged reptiles that dominated prehistoric skies—has opened in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, bringing the history of the ancient flying creatures to the public.
The museum was officially inaugurated on Sunday at a national geopark in the Hami region, an area renowned among palaeontologists for its rich deposits of pterosaur fossils.
Located in the desert, the approximately 4,600-square-metre museum has been designed in the shape of six giant oval structures, resembling a cluster of pterosaur eggs when viewed from above.
The museum houses a large collection of rare fossils recovered during more than two decades of fieldwork by researchers from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
Among the exhibits are what the museum describes as the world’s first three-dimensionally preserved pterosaur egg and embryo fossils. Several large pterosaur fossils are also being displayed publicly for the first time.
The collection brings together evidence of pterosaurs’ lives, environment and evolution during the Cretaceous period, around 130 million years ago, allowing visitors to explore the prehistoric world through fossils and scientific displays.
Xu Xing, head of the CAS institute, said the museum represented China’s leading role in global pterosaur research.
He said the facility would also give the public an opportunity to experience the mysteries of prehistoric life in a more direct and engaging way.
The museum’s opening marks a significant addition to China’s palaeontological attractions and provides a dedicated space for studying and presenting the fossil record of one of the most remarkable groups of prehistoric flying vertebrates.
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