Museum's past inspires showcase of the future

Thanks to these efforts, in the past decades, researchers of the museum have published hundreds of articles in journals both at home and abroad.

According to Beijing Daily, the museum's exhibition area in 1962 covered more than 4,000 square meters, exhibiting about 5,000 specimens.

After decades of development, the museum expanded to about 23,000 square meters, housing a collection of more than 372,000 scientific specimens and cultural relics and receiving 1.8 million visits every year, according to the museum's statistics.

Among its star collections are a world-famous skull of Stegodon zdanskyi, also called the Yellow River elephant, and a 26-meter-long Mamenchisaurus jingyanensis, one of the longest dinosaur fossils ever found in China.

It is also home to one of the best collections of Jehol Biota fossils accessible to visitors. The Jehol Biota in eastern Asia contains a plethora of evidence regarding terrestrial ecosystems during the Early Cretaceous period (about 145 million years ago).