I went to Ibaraki Nature Museum on Saturday. I have to admit I don't care for wild life in general, but since this museum is really huge and where people from other prefectures come all the way, I thought I should go and take some pics.
The admission fee for adults was about 7 dollars per person. It seemed this museum has more people in the summer when children are having vacation.
This is a skeleton of Mammuthus Sungari which was found in China in 1980. Its height is about 5 meters. I was going to take pics of things that existed only in Japan, but Japanese fossils in this museum weren't so interesting.
And this is called Dimetrodon grandis that was found in the USA. The upright bones you see on its back are said to keep the body temperature.
I think this is the most well-known dinosaur, yes, it's Tyrannosaurus. If you're an English speaker you'd notice the named derives from the word "tyranny". It was found both in the North America and Mongolia. His height was about 15m. I remembered enjoying the attraction "Jurassic Park: The Ride" in Universal Studios Hollywood in LA.
And this is a globefish that was caught off the coast of northern Ibaraki prefecture. This is the biggest globefish on record and it weighs about 1.5t. We don't have globefish for sushi FYI.
I could see some living creatures as well in this museum.These are mountain trouts. They're said to feed on flogs and other aquatic insects. You can distinguish them from the other fishes by recognizing the white spots on their backs.
And this was another living creature. It is a kind of lizard said to live in the grassland. He/She was so cute that I wanted to have one in my room.
And this is a butterfly called "Nagasaki Swallowtail". This was originally found in western Japan, but it has gradually spread its habitats and 5 of it were found here in Ibaraki prefecture in 1994. I often see a similar butterfly in parks that is black as this.
Giant crab. This is the biggest crab in the world and if a male Giant crab spreads its scissor hands fully, its width will be nearly 4 meters.
I wanted to show mainly living creatures, but ones available weren't impressive enough. But if you come here as a foreigner you might find some interesting fossils or creatures. It took about an hour to finish getting around in this museum.
