Saitama Museum of Natural History

The exhibits on nature are explained in an easy-to-understand manner using many materials such as fossils, rocks, animals, and plants.

The skeletal reconstruction model of a fossil animal called “paleoparadoxia” is especially popular. In addition, for the visually impaired, there is a corner with stuffed animals that can be touched by hands.

Also on display are the world’s first reconstructed biological models of a 12-meter-long ancient shark and an apex elephant.

The Saitama Museum of Nature is one of the museums with the longest history in Japan.

Among the exhibits, the most eye-catching exhibits include 73 calcarodont megalodon tooth fossils discovered in Fukaya City, Saitama Prefecture, paleoparadoxia fossils discovered in Onohara, Chichibu City and Hannaka, Ogano-cho, Chichibu County, as well as a fossil of the akebono elephant discovered in Sayama City.

In addition, nine fossils, including paleoparadoxia and a chichibu whale, are designated as national natural monuments as the “Paleo-Chichibu Bay Sedimentary Formation and Marine Mammal Fossil Group.

On the first floor, there is an orientation hall, a discovery corner, a geology exhibition hall, and a biology exhibition hall, where permanent exhibits are held; on the second floor, there is a special exhibition room and a panel exhibition, and the special exhibition and panel exhibition are changed every one to three months.