Some 127 animal fossils dating back up to 15 million years will go on display at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum late next month, museum managers announced yesterday.

The museum will also set up a mock excavation site, so visitors can see what it is like to dig for ancient fossils.

"This will be the museum's biggest and most important fossil exhibition," museum Curator Pan Zheng said over the weekend.

The fossils, all of which are regarded as national treasures, were transported to the city from Hezheng, Gansu Province by trucks and arrived on Saturday morning. The trucks had a police escort throughout the journey.

The curator said the exhibited fossils show what types of animals were living in China 12 to 15 million years ago, and are of high research value. He said they will surely surprise museum visitors.

The fossils include 10 skulls from shovel-tusked elephants ranging in age from three months to 40 years, 64 rhino skulls, as well as goat and horse skeletons.

All of the fossils were excavated over the past five decades.

Pan said a 1,000-square-meter display area will be set up for the fossils, and the show should open sometime around the Spring Festival, which begins on January 29.

Archaeological experts will provide lectures at a mimic excavation site in the museum to help visitors understand the excavation process and the importance of studying animal fossils.

The fossils are normally housed at the Hezheng Museum of Paleontologic Animal Fossils - the country's only fossil museum for vertebrate animals.

Hezheng is located at the boundary between the western Qingzang Plateau and Huangtu Plateau. The research of ancient animal fossils is crucial to the study of the evolution of civilization evolvement as well as the physical changes on Earth, Pan said.

(Shanghai Daily December 5, 2005)