Touring the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum Is a Roaring Good Time

Spotlight on Dinosaurs

Fukui Prefecture on the Japan Sea coast is dinosaur central. Most of the dinosaur fossils discovered in Japan—some 80%—come from the prefecture, which is home to the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum, the nation’s largest facility dedicated to the massive creatures. Along with the museum, Fukui Station on the Hokuriku Shinkansen offers a taste of the area’s ancient history with a plaza where visitors can walk with the giant reptiles. Located on the west side of the station, the space features a three-dimensional mural along with life-sized replicas of dinosaurs that roar and move, including a 6-meter tall Fukuititan nipponensis from early Cretaceous-period Japan.

Fukui Station Dinosaur Plaza. (© Nippon.com)

The discovery of a fossilized tooth from a carnivorous dinosaur in neighboring Ishikawa Prefecture several decades ago focused attention of dinosaur researchers on the Hokuriku region. Paleontologists began carrying out full-scale digs in Fukui’s Katsuyama, which sits on the same rock stratum as where the tooth was discovered, in 1989. With rocks dating from the early Cretaceous period, around 120 million years ago, sitting exposed on the surface, the area is ideal for fossil hunting and has produced some of the biggest finds in Japan in the past 30 years.

The Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum opened in Katsuyama in 2000 and prides itself on having one of the largest collections in the world. Situated about an hour’s drive from Fukui Station, the museum has welcomed more than 13 million visitors to date.

Clockwise from top: Fukuisaurus tetoriensis greets visitors at Katsuyama Station on the Echizen Railway Eiheiji Katsuyama Line; museum mascot Dr. Dinosaur waits to snap selfies with visitors; the road to the station is dotted with statues and fossil replicas. (© Nippon.com)

The museum, with its distinctive dome, was designed by pioneering architect Kurokawa Kishō. A new wing resembling an egg (right) houses an exhibition hall. (© Nippon.com)

Related article › Giants Roam Fukui at Prefectural Dinosaur Museum

Amazing Dinosaur Skeletons

The museum underwent renovations in 2023 that expanded the facility and added new exhibits. The biggest draw at the museum is Dinosaur World exhibit on the first floor of the main building. It features 50 full-sized skeletons of different dinosaur species, including 10 constructed predominantly from fossilized remains.

A three-quarter scale animatronic T-rex dominates the main exhibition hall. (© Nippon.com)

Matsushita Junjō, who heads the education division at the museum, takes pride in the realism of the specimens on display. He says that even the replicas are perfectly realistic as they have been carefully cast from fossilized specimens. Accompanying the life-sized skeletons are small models that help visitors picture what the dinosaurs would have looked like when alive.

Skeletons and models give visitors an idea of the scale and features of different dinosaurs. (© Nippon.com)

A life-size reconstruction makes an impact on visitors. (© Nippon.com)

A central attraction at the museum is an area featuring dinosaurs from the Katsuyama site. Specimens include a full skeleton of herbivore Fukuisaurus tetoriensis, the first ever reproduced in Japan, and the therapod Tyrannomimus fukuiensis that was officially recognized in September 2023 as Japan’s eleventh unique dinosaur species. A fossil of Fukuipteryx prima, an ancient bird ancestor, is also on permanent display.

Skeletons of plant-eater Fukuisaurus tetoriensis and carnivore Fukuiraptor kitadaniensis. (© Nippon.com)

Another specimen of major interest is the mummified fossil of a Brachylophosaurus. Known as Leonardo, the 77-million-year-old fossil, on loan from The Great Plains Dinosaur Museum, displays scale imprints and the outlines of muscles, offering an unprecedented look at the physical aspects of the extinct species.

The 7-meter long Brachylophosaurus specimen is listed in the 2004 Guinness Book of World Records as the best-preserved dinosaur. (© Nippon.com)

Extinct Creatures Reveal Their Secrets

Matsushita explains that many visitors are surprised to learn that winged reptiles and those that lived in the seas are not technically dinosaurs, which are broadly defined as a reptile with a skeleton suited to walking upright. Neither Pterosaurs, which flew using wings comprising skin stretched over their forelimbs, or ancient sea-based reptiles that swam using fins are defined as dinosaurs and are therefore displayed in a different section of the museum.

Our understanding of the dinosaurs and other ancient animals has progressed in leaps and bounds with steady field work and research. Recent discoveries include prehistoric birds with bright plumage and ostrich-like Ornithomimosauria, which could run as fast as a car. The growing research into life on earth during the age of dinosaurs has had an impact on popular culture, such as the Jurassic Park series of films, as well as enhanced museums exhibits, notably the introduction of realistic robots showing how the giant prehistoric lizards looked and moved.

Displays showing aquatic reptiles like a species of mosasaur (top) and the evolution of birds. (© Nippon.com)

The exhibit on the history of life on to the second level includes an extensive range of ancient creatures. The exhibit starts with sea-dwelling trilobites, which appeared on earth 500 million years ago, and gradually progresses through the eons to aquatic reptiles and winged pterosaurs, mammals that ruled the earth after earlier species had become extinct, and concludes with a skeleton of Homo sapiens.

Clockwise from top left: a mammal-precursor that appeared from the end of the Paleozoic era; a four-legged ancestors of whales; ancient skeletons of a whale, mammoth, and giant fallow deer. (© Nippon.com)

A Host of Interactive Experiences

The new wing, opened in 2023, has an array of interactive content. The lobby features statues of five dinosaurs and one bird species discovered in Fukui. From there visitors are led into the special exhibition area containing audio and visual recreations of the Cretaceous period. The glass-walled storage area that adjoins the corridor gives a behind-the-scenes glimpse of how specimens are preserved at the museum.

A display of dinosaurs discovered in Fukui. (© Nippon.com)

The special exhibition area recreates scenes from ancient earth. (© Nippon.com)

Katsuyama, the largest paleontological dig in Japan, offers a number of interactive areas where visitors can get a sense of the work of dinosaur scientists at the museum. These include categorizing fossils and cleaning specimens using the same tools as paleontologists. There is also a full-size reconstruction of a Tyrannosaurus skull and a display of nondestructive analysis using CT imaging. Matsuyama encourages visitors to take part in one of the daily hands-on tours to the dig site in the mountains, which are offered between spring and autumn. Standing on rocks from the Cretaceous period, participants can imagine how the earth looked millions of years ago.

The Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum offers an immersive world where visitors of any age can lose themselves in the past.

Clockwise from top: Matsushita shows off a display of dinosaurs; a visitor chips away rock to reveal a dinosaur tooth at the hands-on corner; an exhibit where visitors can search by hand for fossils. (© Nippon.com)

The museum shop has a wide selection of figurines and other dinosaur-themed merchandise. (© Nippon.com)

Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum

• Address: 51-11 Terao, Muroko, Katsuyama, Fukui Prefecture
• Web: https://www.dinosaur.pref.fukui.jp/en/

(Originally published in Japanese. Reporting, text, and photos by Nippon.com.)