Screenshot photo from China News Service shows the museum.

(ECNS) -- The world's first museum dedicated to pterosaurs, the flying reptiles that lived alongside the dinosaurs, opened on Sunday in Hami, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, according to the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Nestled within a Yardang geopark in Hami, the Hami Pterosaur Museum covers approximately 8,000 square meters, including 4,600 square meters of exhibition space. It features five themed exhibition halls and two halls dedicated to public engagement. Its six oval-shaped exhibition halls are arranged at varying heights, resembling a cluster of pterosaur eggs when viewed from above, while the silver-white exterior evokes the appearance of an interstellar exploration base, according to Wang Xiaolin, a researcher with the institute.

Hami, renowned as the "Hometown of Pterosaurs," is home to globally rare pterosaur fossil resources as well as distinctive Yardang landforms. Preliminary assessments indicate that the area preserves fossil remains representing hundreds of millions of individual pterosaurs and other ancient vertebrates.

(By Zhang Dongfang)