China’s Dinosaur World: The Grand Opening

On May 26, 2025, the grand opening of the China’s Dinosaur World exhibition took place at the Shanghai Natural History Museum (SNHM). Jointly organized by the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum and the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, with execution by the Paleozoological Museum of China and Shanghai Dinosaurs Education Technology Co., Ltd., the exhibition will open to the public on May 31.

The exhibition brings together 118 representative dinosaur specimens and significant models from 12 research institutions and science museums across China. These prized Chinese dinosaur specimens are used to recount the evolutionary saga of the entire dinosaur family, and showcase the scientific discoveries and research efforts of three generations of Chinese paleontologists specializing in dinosaur studies. Aiming to allow visitors to “view dinosaur specimens spanning billions of years and across the country in this one exhibition,” the exhibition features carefully selected “crown jewels” from various collections. These exhibits span different geological eras and dinosaur clades, with special emphasis on China’s groundbreaking contributions to dinosaur research.

The exhibition includes dinosaur fossils from the Lufeng dinosaur fauna in Yunnan Province during the Early Jurassic period, the dinosaur faunas from the Sichuan-Chongqing region during the Middle-Late Jurassic period, the Junggar Basin dinosaur fauna in Xinjiang during the Late Jurassic period, the feathered dinosaur faunas from western Liaoning and eastern Inner Mongolia during the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous periods, and representative dinosaurs from Henan, Inner Mongolia, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Shandong provinces during the Cretaceous period.

This exhibition distinguishes itself by assembling an extraordinary collection of prized dinosaur specimens. Museums and research institutions specializing in dinosaur fossils across China have opened their treasured archives, bringing to Shanghai numerous scientifically invaluable specimens - many leaving laboratory confines for the first time - to meet the public.