Beijing Museum of Natural History on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
The Beijing Museum of Natural History (BMNH; ) is located at 126 Tian Qiao Nan Street, Dongcheng District, Home and Abroad
It was founded in 1951 as the National Central Museum of Natural History, and its name was changed to the ''Beijing Museum of Natural History'' in 1962. The BMNH is the first large scale natural history museum created in China.BMNH website
The BMNH has total floor space of 24,000 square meters, of which 8,000 square meters are available for display and owns more than 200,000 specimens. The major display area is the Tian Jiabing Building. The collections include
File:Yangchuanosaurus and Tuojiangosaurus at the Beijing Museum of Natural History.jpg, Mounted skeletons of ''Yangchuanosaurus'' and ''Tuojiangosaurus''.
File:Microraptor at the Beijing Museum of Natural History.jpg, ''Microraptor'' specimen on the second floor.
File:Szechuanosaurus at the Beijing Museum of Natural History.jpg, Mounted skeleton of ''Szechuanosaurus''.
File:Lufengosaurus_magnus3.jpg, Skull of ''Lufengosaurus magnus''.
Official website
{{authority control Museums established in 1951 Museums in Beijing Natural history museums in China 1951 establishments in China National first-grade museums of China
The Beijing Museum of Natural History (BMNH; ) is located at 126 Tian Qiao Nan Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
, 100050, and is the most popular natural history museum
A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...
in China.It was founded in 1951 as the National Central Museum of Natural History, and its name was changed to the ''Beijing Museum of Natural History'' in 1962. The BMNH is the first large scale natural history museum created in China.BMNH website
The BMNH has total floor space of 24,000 square meters, of which 8,000 square meters are available for display and owns more than 200,000 specimens. The major display area is the Tian Jiabing Building. The collections include
paleontology
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...
, ornithology
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...
, mammals
Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur o ...
and invertebrates
Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordat ...
, and include a major collection of dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
fossils and mounted skeletons. The BMNH also engages in significant scientific research in these areas.
Major specimens and exhibitions
Fossil Galleries
There are three galleries devoted topaleontology
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...
in the museum. In the Mesozoic
The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretace ...
gallery, a large bronze model of the ancient earth is set at the beginning of the gallery. In the center of the gallery, a large ''Mamenchisaurus
''Mamenchisaurus'' (or spelling pronunciation ) is a genus of sauropod dinosaur known for their remarkably long necks which made up nearly half the total body length. Numerous species have been assigned to the genus; however, many of these might ...
'' skeleton is mounted, with multiple dromaeosaur
Dromaeosauridae () is a family of feathered theropod dinosaurs. They were generally small to medium-sized feathered carnivores that flourished in the Cretaceous Period. The name Dromaeosauridae means 'running lizards', from Greek ('), meaning ...
skeletons darting around it. A ''Szechuanosaurus
''Szechuanosaurus'' (" Szechuan lizard") is an extinct Chure, D.J. (2000) ''A new species of'' Allosaurus ''from the Morrison Formation of Dinosaur National Monument (UT–CO) and a revision of the theropod family Allosauridae''. Unpublished Ph.D ...
'' is also mounted in an upright stance. Also, skeletal mounts of both ''Bactrosaurus
''Bactrosaurus'' (; meaning "Club lizard," "baktron" = club + ''sauros'' = lizard) is a genus of herbivorous hadrosauroid dinosaur that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous, about 96-85 million years ago. The position ''Bactrosaurus'' occupi ...
'' and ''Lufengosaurus
''Lufengosaurus'' (, meaning "Lufeng lizard") is a genus of massospondylid dinosaur which lived during the Early Jurassic period in what is now southwestern China.
Discovery, taxonomy and research
During the late 1930s geologist Bien Meinian ...
'' are featured. In the back of the gallery, a ''Yangchuanosaurus
''Yangchuanosaurus'' is an extinct genus of metriacanthosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived in China from the Middle to Late Jurassic periods (Bathonian to Oxfordian stages), and was similar in size and appearance to its North American and Eu ...
'' is mounted attacking a '' Tuojiangosaurus''. The gallery also features many feathered dinosaur
A feathered dinosaur is any species of dinosaur possessing feathers. While this includes all species of birds, there is a hypothesis that many, if not all non-avian dinosaur species also possessed feathers in some shape or form.
It has been su ...
s from Liaoning, including specimens of ''Confuciusornis
''Confuciusornis'' is a genus of basal crow-sized avialan from the Early Cretaceous Period of the Yixian and Jiufotang Formations of China, dating from 125 to 120 million years ago. Like modern birds, ''Confuciusornis'' had a toothless beak, b ...
'', '' Microraptor'', and ''Anchiornis
''Anchiornis'' is a genus of small, four-winged paravian dinosaurs, with only one known species, the type species ''Anchiornis huxleyi'', named for its similarity to modern birds. The Latin name ''Anchiornis'' derives from a Greek word meaning " ...
''. The gallery connects to a large exhibit with animatronic dinosaurs and a smaller gallery housing dinosaur egg
Dinosaur eggs are the organic vessels in which a dinosaur embryo develops. When the first scientifically documented remains of non-avian dinosaurs were being described in England during the 1820s, it was presumed that dinosaurs had laid eggs be ...
s.
The Cenozoic gallery has multiple mounts of ''Paraceratherium
''Paraceratherium'' is an extinct genus of hornless rhinoceros. It is one of the largest terrestrial mammals that has existed and lived from the early to late Oligocene epoch (34–23 million years ago). The first fossils were discovered ...
'', ''Stegodon
''Stegodon'' ("roofed tooth" from the Ancient Greek words , , 'to cover', + , , 'tooth' because of the distinctive ridges on the animal's molars) is an extinct genus of proboscidean, related to elephants. It was originally assigned to the fami ...
'', and ''Megaloceros
''Megaloceros'' (from Greek: + , literally "Great Horn"; see also Lister (1987)) is an extinct genus of deer whose members lived throughout Eurasia from the early Pleistocene to the beginning of the Holocene and were important herbivores durin ...
''. Also on display is a skull of a woolly mammoth
The woolly mammoth (''Mammuthus primigenius'') is an extinct species of mammoth that lived during the Pleistocene until its extinction in the Holocene epoch. It was one of the last in a line of mammoth species, beginning with '' Mammuthus s ...
. In a glass case, a skeleton of an entelodont
Entelodontidae, the entelodonts, are an extinct family of pig-like artiodactyls (even-toed ungulates) which inhabited the Northern Hemisphere (Asia, Europe, and North America) from the late Eocene to the Middle Miocene epochs, about 38-19 millio ...
is featured. Also on display are skulls of several prehistoric mammals, including ''Homotherium
''Homotherium'', also known as the scimitar-toothed cat or scimitar cat, is an extinct genus of machairodontine saber-toothed predator, often termed scimitar-toothed cats, that inhabited North America, South America, Eurasia, and Africa during ...
'', ''Megaloceros
''Megaloceros'' (from Greek: + , literally "Great Horn"; see also Lister (1987)) is an extinct genus of deer whose members lived throughout Eurasia from the early Pleistocene to the beginning of the Holocene and were important herbivores durin ...
'', and ''Elasmotherium
''Elasmotherium'' is an extinct genus of large rhinoceros endemic to Eurasia during Late Miocene through the Pleistocene, existing at least as late as 39,000 years ago in the Late Pleistocene. A more recent date of 26,000 BP is considered ...
''.
There is also a gallery showcasing early life on earth. There is a large sculpture showing an ''Anomalocaris
''Anomalocaris'' ("unlike other shrimp", or "abnormal shrimp") is an extinct genus of radiodont, an order of early-diverging stem-group arthropods. The first fossils of ''Anomalocaris'' were discovered in the ''Ogygopsis'' Shale of the Stephen F ...
'', along with trilobite
Trilobites (; meaning "three lobes") are extinct marine arthropods that form the class Trilobita. Trilobites form one of the earliest-known groups of arthropods. The first appearance of trilobites in the fossil record defines the base of the ...
s and a ''Hallucigenia
''Hallucigenia'' is a genus of Cambrian animal resembling worms, known from articulated fossils in Burgess Shale-type deposits in Canada and China, and from isolated spines around the world. The generic name reflects the type species' unusual ...
'' bursting out of the floor. There is a display of ammonites
Ammonoids are a group of extinct marine mollusc animals in the subclass Ammonoidea of the class Cephalopoda. These molluscs, commonly referred to as ammonites, are more closely related to living coleoids (i.e., octopuses, squid and cuttl ...
arranged in a helix shell. There are also many fossils from the Cambrian explosion.
Gallery
See also
* List of museums in China *List of natural history museums
This is a list of natural history museums, also known as museums of natural history, i.e. museums whose exhibits focus on the subject of natural history, including such topics as animals, plants, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, and climatolog ...
References
External links
Official website
{{authority control Museums established in 1951 Museums in Beijing Natural history museums in China 1951 establishments in China National first-grade museums of China