At a press conference held to publicize the collection, museum Curator Lin Chung-hsien said the museum's core operations are collection and research, through which people can find out more about nature.

Among the fossils, the oldest is a prehistoric crocodile called steneosaurus bollensis, discovered in a small village in Stuttgart, Germany. It lived in the early Jurassic Period some 180 million years ago, according to Cheng Yien-nien, a paleontologist from the museum's Geology Department.

In his briefing, Cheng also introduced the museum's most valuable crocodile fossil -- an 5.6 meter reptile called dyrosaurus phosphaticus that was found in Morocco and is said to be around 50 million years old.

It might be the world's first specimen of the species to be completely unearthed, Cheng said.

In addition, he announced that the museum is managing a specimen of a crocodilian species discovered in Penghu, off southwestern Taiwan, in 2006, which he estimated to be 14 million years old.

It is the oldest crocodilian fossil unearthed in Taiwan and is probably a new species of prehistoric crocodile, Cheng said, noting that the fossil has preserved skin and even food in its stomach.