Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum

photo by DannyWithLove · CC BY-SA 4.0

photo by Totti · CC BY-SA 4.0

Fifty mounted skeletons: one of the three great dinosaur museums in the world.

Fifty complete mounted dinosaur skeletons (there were 44 before the 2023 renovation) among about 41,000 specimens held, in a silver-domed building set into the Katsuyama hillside. Alongside the permanent collection, the museum has the ‘dinosaur tower’ and the ‘visible storeroom’, where visitors see the technicians at work on the fossils rather than behind a display case.

Opened on 14 July 2000, it is counted among the three great dinosaur museums in the world, together with Canada's Royal Tyrrell Museum and the Zigong Dinosaur Museum in China: a distinction Katsuyama owes to its own fossil beds, where Fukuisaurus and Fukuiraptor were discovered. In 2016 the complex, museum and open-air dinosaur park together, recorded 901,119 visitors.

ℹ️ Open 9:00–17:00 (last entry 16:30), extended to 8:30–18:00 from 18 July to 16 August; closed on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of every month (the following day if it is a public holiday) and from 31 December to 1 January. Adult ticket 1,000 yen, high school/university students 800, elementary/junior high 500, over-70s 500; free below preschool age and with a disability certificate. ⚠️ Since 2023 entry requires a ticket for a fixed date and time, which can be booked online.

Sources: dinosaur.pref.fukui.jp · dinosaur.pref.fukui.jp · ja.wikipedia.org

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