Online resource guide

Dinosaurs from China runs at Te Papa from 6 December 2003 to 12 April 2004. It features some of the largest and most complete fossil dinosaur skeletons in the world. The largest specimen, the Jurassic sauropod Mamenchisaurus jingyanensis, is twenty-six metres long. The exhibits are so large that we have had to accommodate the exhibition in two galleries on two different levels of the Museum.

This exhibition originally showed at the Australian Museum in Sydney, where it attracted enormous crowds. Te Papa has reworked the presentation and brought in information about New Zealand’s own dinosaurs and dinosaur hunters. The exhibition now also includes one of the great treasures of Te Papa’s collections: the very first fossil to be recognised as a dinosaur – an Iguanodon tooth found by Gideon Mantell in Sussex in 1820.

About this resource
This online resource is designed to support teachers in guiding their students through the exhibition. It is in eight parts, one for each segment of the exhibition. Each has curriculum links listed, background information, possible topics for discussion within the exhibition, and some ideas for classroom activities. Each one ends with suggested further reading and useful websites.

This resource includes maps of the galleries. The overview map is interactive and provides links to the rest of the resource. There are also two exhibition maps which you can print off.

Booking your visit
All self-guided groups must book before their visit to qualify for a discounted exhibition entry price.

To book, phone 04 381 7087, fill in our online form, or email reservations@tepapa.govt.nz.

We also offer educator-led visits to the exhibition – please contact us to find out more.

The Dinosaurs from China exhibition has high levels of bookings from self-guided groups, and it is likely there will be more than one self-guided school group in the exhibition at a time. We strongly recommend that all children wear a badge or sticker with their name and school on it. Why not have your class make their own dinosaur name badge before you visit us?

Please note: All files for printing are in PDF format. You may need to download the free Adobe Acrobat PDF viewer to view the PDF documents.