Spectacular Chinese mammal fossil exhibition opens | Elsa Panciroli

New public exhibition at Beijing's Museum of Natural History features scores of previously unseen fossils

We flew over Jurassic China, and the pristine forest stretched endlessly towards distant mountains. A river meandered below and we sank down to skim across its surface like a dragonfly. A pterosaur swooped in front. The tip of its wing caught the glistening waters' surface and sent up a spray of water. The audience of scientists gasped as the water hit their surprised faces, droplets spattering their 3D glasses. They held up their hands as a second spray shot out of the seat in front, followed by a hard puff of air as the pterosaur wheeled up into the sky.

Most of these specimens have never been seen first-hand by anyone except curators and the research teams who found them