Dinosaur invasion at Natural History Museum

The "China's Dinosaur World" exhibition will open this month at the Shanghai Natural History Museum, showcasing 118 specimens and models from across the country in the first national gathering of its kind.

Organized in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), the exhibition draws from 12 leading museums and research institutions, marking a milestone in Chinese paleontological research.

China currently leads the world in dinosaur discoveries, with more than 350 identified species. Many of the fossils on display will be shown publicly for the first time, and around 80 are classified as top-level nationally protected specimens.

Yesterday, the final three specimens – the feathered Anchiornis huxleyi, the winged Ambopteryx longibrachium, and the rare Sinosaurus triassicus – were unpacked at the museum, completing a collection that spans over 200 million years of prehistoric life.

Inside the museum's atrium, visitors are now greeted by three towering skeletons and models: the 38-meter-long Ruyangosaurus, among the largest dinosaurs ever reconstructed; the 22-meter Mamenchisaurus, once hailed as Asia's biggest; and the 20-meter Omeisaurus tianfuensis, a key specimen in the study of Jurassic gigantism.

The exhibition will open to the public on May 31.