Jinju Gajin-ri Bird and Dinosaur Footprint Fossil Site

Step inside the science museum of the Gyeongsangnam-do Science Education Institute in Jinju and you find a slab of 100-million-year-old shoreline laid bare in the middle of the exhibition floor. Builders digging into a hillside uncovered the fossil beds, and rather than cut them away, the institute built its exhibition hall over them. Bird, dinosaur and pterosaur footprints were all found together in the same place, something very rare worldwide, and the site became a national Natural Monument in 1998.

A Cretaceous shoreline found on a building site

The site was once a low hill about 55 m above sea level. On 20 May 1997, while the ground was being excavated to a level of 35 m for the institute's new building, Baek Gwang-seok, then a teacher at Gyeongnam Science High School, spotted footprints in the rock. Excavation began straight away, and five areas yielded an astonishing number of fossils:

• about 2,500 footprints of sandpiper- and plover-like shorebirds
• 80 dinosaur footprints
• 20 pterosaur footprints
• 365 slabs measuring 30×40 cm, covered with bird tracks

Mud cracks, formed as the mud surface dried and split like a turtle's shell, and ripple marks were found as well. They show that dinosaurs and pterosaurs walked the same lakeshore where flocks of small waders fed, which makes the site an important record of a Cretaceous shoreline ecosystem.

What to see

• The fossil outcrop hall: layers of the Haman Formation of the Gyeongsang Supergroup are preserved indoors exactly as they were uncovered. Walk along the railing and look down to see the rock surface crowded with small bird prints.
• Fossil slabs: some of the excavated slabs sit on stands where you can see them up close, each with dozens of small three-toed bird tracks overlapping one another.
• Excavation story: panels with photos trace the dig from discovery to designation as a Natural Monument.
• The rest of the museum: a natural history hall in the basement, galleries on physics, chemistry and earth science, and a telescope on the roof.

Good to know

These fossils owe their discovery to construction work. Had the hill been left alone, the beds would still lie under about 20 m of earth. In the end the institute chose to build over the fossils, so a place where students come to learn science became a natural history site in its own right.

Tripto tips

• Opening hours: 10:00–17:00. During the lunch break (12:00–13:00) only the ground-floor fossil hall and the basement natural history hall stay open.
• Closed: Mondays and public holidays, except Children's Day (5 May).
• Admission and parking: admission is free and there is a free car park on the north side of the museum. Groups must book at least a week ahead (tel. 055-760-8150).
• Getting there: from Jinseong IC on the Namhae Expressway, follow provincial road 1007 north for about 1.5 km to Gyeongnam Science High School and the institute, which share a site. The address is 178-35 Jinui-ro, Jinseong-myeon, Jinju.
• Time needed: 30 minutes for the fossil hall alone, 1–2 hours with the rest of the museum.
• Combine with: pair it with Jinju Fortress in the city, or build a South Gyeongsang dinosaur-track trip with the fossil sites at Gain-ri in Namhae and Deokmyeong-ri in Goseong.