A dentist deeply fascinated with fossils said he became hooked on collecting rocks containing ancient lifeforms after buying 10 fossilized swallows at a night market two decades ago.
For Hsu Wei-chieh (許威傑), a dentist in Keelung, the NT$200 purchase led to him procuring shelves of books on the topic and returning to study, enrolling in geology courses at National Taiwan University.
According to Hsu, he was hooked on fossils the moment he learned that the rocks he had bought at the night market showed the imprint of creatures that were alive hundreds of millions of years ago.
Photo: Yu Chao-fu, Taipei Times
“It was really curiosity,” Hsu said, adding that ever since then he has found himself increasingly drawn to the subject.
While every collector of fossils has their own particular area of interest, some preferring a particular color, while others are drawn to a particular grain or texture, Hsu’s focus is the historical background of fossils.
“The greatest thing I have learned from the collection over these many years is that I can tell a story for each stone,” Hsu said, adding that he now knows enough about fossils and geology to be able to make some audacious predictions about evolutionary processes.
Hsu and his wife, Teng Kuei (鄧桂), own a dental clinic on Siding Road in Keelung, and while there are parts of Hsu’s collection on display in the clinic, the majority of the collection is displayed in a museum next to the clinic, named the Darwin Fossil Museum.
Pointing to the museum, which he has been running for nearly five years, Hsu said that the fossils are arranged chronologically, with the second floor displaying cyanobacteria in stromatolite fossils — dating back to the period when life began to emerge — and fossils from the Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic periods.
His most well-known fossils, including of trilobites and the ammonitida, are on the second floor, Hsu said. The third floor mainly exhibits fossil wood, ferns and dinosaur fossils, Hsu said, adding that the fourth floor was reserved for larger and rarer pieces. The fifth floor is a multimedia classroom where films can be shown, Hsu said.
The museum is entirely free, Hsu said.
Hsu said that he had invited the Keelung City mayor and the head of the department of cultural affairs to visit, but he had not received a reply.
Aside from students from a community college and some members of the public, the museum has not received many visitors in the past five years, Hsu said.
Hsu said that there were offers from central and southern Taiwan to set up exhibits in the areas, but he had decided to give up on such ideas.
“There are reasons I have established the museum in Keelung,” Hsu said, adding that not only was it his hometown, but also the place he works.
In an effort to boost the number of visitors and help promote an interest in fossils, Hsu paid to publish an album on the museum and commissioned a book: Fossils: A Narration of History (化石話古).
POLAM KOPITIAM CASE: Of the two people still in hospital, one has undergone a liver transplant and is improving, while the other is being evaluated for a liver transplant A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital. The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation. The Food and
The long-awaited Taichung aquarium is expected to open next year after more than a decade of development. The building in Cingshui District (清水) is to feature a large ocean aquarium on the first floor, coral display area on the second floor, a jellyfish tank and Dajia River (大甲溪) basin display on the third, a river estuary display and restaurant on the fourth, and a cafe and garden on the fifth. As it is near Wuci Fishing Port (梧棲漁港), many are expecting the opening of the aquarium to bring more tourism to the harbor. Speaking at the city council on Monday, Taichung City Councilor
A fourth person has died in a food poisoning outbreak linked to the Xinyi (信義) branch of Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in Taipei, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said on Monday. It was the second fatality in three days, after another was announced on Saturday. The 40-year-old woman experienced multiple organ failure in the early hours on Monday, and the family decided not to undergo emergency resuscitation, Wang said. She initially showed signs of improvement after seeking medical treatment for nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, but her condition worsened due to an infection, he said. Two others who
Taiwanese should be mindful when visiting China, as Beijing in July is likely to tighten the implementation of policies on national security following the introduction of two regulations, a researcher said on Saturday. China on Friday unveiled the regulations governing the law enforcement and judicial activities of national security agencies. They would help crack down on “illegal” and “criminal” activities that Beijing considers to be endangering national security, according to reports by China’s state media. The definition of what constitutes a national security threat in China is vague, Taiwan Thinktank researcher Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致) said. The two procedural regulations are to provide Chinese