Spectators will have to curb temptations to touch the beautiful, yet precious, sea lily fossil being displayed at the Beijing Nature History Museum.

The fossil -- a starfish about 230 million years ago -- looks like a lily, despite having been fused into rock.

The fossils are a portion of the treasures being displayed during the exhibition.

The show ends in January next year.

The exhibit -- which includes a rare Keichousaurus -- is composed of fossils from the largest group of artifacts that had been smuggled out of China.

The fossils were returned to China last month by the United States.

The fossils, which originated in southwest China's Guizhou Province, include the intact Keichousaurus, beautiful sea lilies and some ichthyosaurus fossils.

All lived during the Middle Triassic Period about 230 million years ago.

The Keichousaurus, a relatively small early marine reptile, and ichthyosaurus were believed to have disappeared in the late Mesozoic Era.

It is believed the Keichousaurus, or Guizhou Long, had existed only in China.

Sea lilies were invertebrates that lived 200 to 300 meters beneath the sea.

The fossils were seized last year by US customs officers from San Diego, California.

The United States decided to return the fossils to China in keeping with the principles of the 1970 UNESCO Cultural Property Convention.

The 113 fossils, weighing 14 tons and stored in 93 boxes were returned on June 10 to China.

"It is unprecedented to display so many valuable Triassic fossils at a single time in the history of the museum," said Li Jianjun, the museum's deputy curator.

"Besides showing people the wonder of the fossils, another goal of this exhibition is to show our firm position against smuggling," said Li.

Only 40 percent of the fossils will be displayed due to the museum's limited space.

"We chose the best fossils to clean first so the exhibition could open during the summer holidays," Li said. "Thus, children and students won't miss seeing them."

"These fossils are among the best and most-integrated I've ever seen," said Zhao Xijin, a professor with the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleonthropology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Zhao has studied the Keichousaurus for about 40 years.

"These precious fossils were an invaluable asset to our research work, and should be well protected because they were non-renewable natural resources of China," Zhao said.

Unscientific digging, prompted by smuggling and the collection of illegal fossils, resulted in the loss of essential information for scientists and researchers, he said.

The Keichousaurus fossils are most valuable to researchers due to the creature's unique existence in China, Zhao said.

The fossils could help researchers study the evolution process of the Keichousaurus, and their living conditions at that time.

The first Keichousaurus fossil was discovered in 1957 in Guizhou Province's Xingyi County by Hu Chengzhi.

Hu had been a researcher with the then-Ministry of Geology.

That specimen represented the first fossil found of a marine reptile that had evolved into a separate genus in China.

Zhao's teacher, the late Yang Zhongjian, former director of Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, was the first man to conduct research on the Keichousaurus.

(China Daily August 8, 2002)