Country
Fossil hunting in Taiwan
Taiwan's best-known fossil ground is the Tsailiao Creek bed in Zuojhen District, Tainan, which has produced most of the island's Pleistocene land mammals. Tainan City Zuojhen Fossil Park opened on the site in May 2019.
The park rebuilt and merged two older institutions on the same ground, the Tsailiao Fossil Museum and the Natural History Education Hall. Five halls fill the complex. It shares its site with Guangrong Elementary School.
The headline specimen is a mounted skeleton of the Hayasaka rhino, Nesorhinus hayasakai. Otsuka and Lin named the animal in 1984 as Rhinoceros sinensis hayasakai, and later work moved it into Nesorhinus. Type material is held at the park and at National Taiwan University. Tsai, Otsuka and Fang published the recovery of five lost type specimens in 2024.
The fossil-bearing unit is the mid-Pleistocene Chiting Formation. Stegodon, crocodile, deer and shellfish come out of the creek alongside the rhino.
1 fossil site
Updated 12 October 2026
Frequently asked questions
- Can you dig for fossils at Zuojhen Fossil Park?
- The digging area inside the park is a simulation. Nothing turned up there is a real fossil, and it is built as an activity for children. The park publishes no permission to collect from the Tsailiao River bed, and the riverbed material feeds a scientific collection that is still being worked on.
- What should you do if you find a fossil in Tsailiao Creek?
- Photograph it where it lies, record the spot, and call the park rather than removing it. Type specimens of Nesorhinus hayasakai had already been lost once through poor curation.