A museum in south China's Guangdong Province has earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records with its 10,008 dinosaur egg fossils, the largest collection in the world.

An official in charge of cultural affairs confirmed that the city museum of Heyuan, in the northern part of Guangdong, has entered the world-famous record book.

Huang Dong, deputy director of Heyuan culture bureau and head of the city museum, said the first group of fossils in the city were discovered in 1996 by children playing on a building site.

"Since then, local residents have helped increase the collection and discovered fossils of a dinosaur and its footprints," said Huang.

Scientists with the Chinese Academy of Sciences have confirmed the fossils belong to a small, carnivorous dinosaur species who 70million years ago. They hope the discovery will shed light on the distribution and evolution of the species.

Huang said the city urgently needs funds to preserve the fossils and carry out necessary research.

Currently most of the fossils are piled in warehouses and garages of the city museum. Some are even kept outdoors with preservatives applied to their surfaces.

Huang said the city plans to build a theme park to better preserve the fossils and create a tourist attraction. The estimated cost for building the park will be 300 to 500 million yuan (36 to 60 million US dollars), he said.

Heyuan city covers 15,800 square kilometers and is 158 kilometers from the provincial capital Guangzhou. Its population is slightly more than 3 million.

(Xinhua News Agency February 11, 2005)