Look at the exhibits: birds, animals, flowers, birds, fish and insects, all hidden mysteries.
Huge and clumsy turtles, jumping deer, crawling cheetahs ... In beijing museum of natural history, the Mesozoic Mammals Exhibition Hall on the first floor displays animals that lived hundreds of millions of years ago, and the animal specimens on the African savannah upstairs are also vivid, making people feel like they are in nature.
This is what makes the exhibits in the Natural History Museum unique.
"The natural museum is different from the herbarium. The specimens in the herbarium are only materials for scientific research, and generally do not show their behavior and living environment. The exhibits in the Natural History Museum should not only restore the postures and movements at that time, but also show the combination of behaviors. It needs to restore the original ecological landscape, show the relationship between organisms, and contain ecological principles and scientific concepts. " Meng said to him.
"The natural museum is not as simple as building a museum to open the door. It should pay attention to the content. Therefore, this also requires us to improve our scientific research capabilities and provide the public with rich popular science products. " Meng said to him. Because of this, every specimen on display contains the mystery of nature. When you visit, you can't see every bird, animal, flower, bird, fish and insect in isolation. Instead, we should enlarge our horizons and observe which creatures they form a food chain with, whether they live in the tropical rain forest or in the desert of Yuan Ye, so as to dig out the natural principles and knowledge hidden in the exhibits.
"You can also change your way of visiting and exercise your perception and observation ability. Take the bones of reptiles and small mammals displayed on the first floor as an example. If you are with children, you can guide them to carefully observe the difference between the two skeletons. " JUNG WOO, director of the Information Center of the Beijing Museum of Natural History, said, "For example, the limbs of the small mammal fossil above are long and the limbs of the reptile fossil below are short?" ? This clearly reflects the difference between small mammals and reptiles in walking, and also allows the audience to intuitively grasp the concept of length. "She added that it is also possible to compare the heads of two bones." Is the head of a small mammal more stereoscopic and that of a reptile more flat? "Why did this happen? This intuitive image comparison can draw the influence of skull on animal brain volume, and then it involves concepts such as species evolution and biological origin. "
Look at scientific research: dinosaur feathers and cubs have worldwide influence.
After seeing the entrance of the exhibits, we came to the second floor of the first floor of beijing museum of natural history, which is a mezzanine between the first floor and the second floor. What is on display here is beijing museum of natural history's scientific research achievements with world influence.
In Meng's view, if you want to be an "expert" who understands the natural museum, you can't do without looking at the scientific research results of this museum. "Scientific research is the embodiment of the core competitiveness of a natural museum and the support of other commercial activities." He said: "From an international point of view, no matter how novel the exhibition form is, it is difficult to show its characteristics and personality without research foundation. Having influential scientific research results is one of the signs of internationally renowned pavilions. "
Then, he pointed out the key to the scientific research achievements of Beijing Museum of Natural History. The first one is the leftmost creature on the second floor. It has reddish-brown feathers on its head and black-and-white wings and feathers on its legs, and it extends to the vicinity of its toes.
"This is not a bird, this is a dinosaur. Its name is close to the bird dragon, which is a dinosaur closely related to birds. It has four wings, as big as a chicken. " Meng said that the key point is that "in the past, the body color of dinosaurs was mostly speculation, but this dinosaur revealed the complete body feather color for the first time." He explained that this was because a well-preserved feather sample was found on its fossil, and a particle named "melanosome" was identified under the electron microscope. Through the measurement and statistics of its size, shape and arrangement density, combined with the comparison of modern bird samples, the color of the whole body feathers of this dinosaur was finally determined.
The importance of several other scientific research achievements on the first floor is reflected in the earliest known. "We also have the earliest known flying beasts-like the ancestor of wishbone-winged beast, the earliest calf-Jurassic beast in China, the earliest dexterous columnar-toothed beast climbing trees, the earliest cave-dwelling beast-short-fingered columnar-toothed beast and so on." Meng said that these achievements have been published in the top international journals Nature or Science, which reflects beijing museum of natural history's international scientific research influence.
At present, a 4D movie based on the Jurassic beast of China has been shown in the Beijing Museum of Natural History. "Our researchers should not only carry out natural science research, but also have the ability to turn it into diversified popular science products." Meng said, "In beijing museum of natural history, there are professionals who study animals, plants and paleontology, but in addition to their own professional disciplines, they also need to study the contents of museums such as collections, exhibitions and popular science. Simply put, the audience needs to study everything and turn their scientific research into exhibitions, movies, books and so on. And pass on their knowledge to the audience. "
After seeing Hershey's bird dragon and other exhibits, you must go to the next exhibition hall to see the temporary exhibition. At present, what is on display here is the beauty of life-with the theme of "beauty", 399 specimens of insects, birds and animals, seashells and plants are used to show the beauty of life in nature.
For this exhibition, Meng pointed out that the unique beauty of insects lies in the complex and changeable growth process of their feet and wings; White fox and other mammals are beautiful in appearance, sex and lifestyle; Shells are "polished" by nature, and the beauty of their shapes has the most visual impact; Birds have various forms, flying "elves" and strange beauty; Plants decorate nature and are beautiful pictures in themselves.
"Limited by the building area, the current update frequency of the exhibition can only be like this. When the building area permits, dozens of exhibitions can be launched every year, and we have made some exhibition reserves. " Meng said: "Understanding a comprehensive natural museum is not just about learning knowledge. It should become an important platform for the public to participate in the construction of ecological civilization in the future, and inspire everyone to conceive a more livable world where people live in harmony with nature. "