A Japanese museum of prehistoric remains signed an agreement Thursday with a similar museum in Canada to promote information exchanges as well as visits by their researchers, museum officials said.
The agreement was signed by Takashi Hamada, director of the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum, and his counterpart at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Alberta, Bruce Gordon Naylor.
The Japanese side hopes it will be able to borrow dinosaur skeletons from the Canadian museum to hold a special exhibition by next summer, said Masanobu Azuma, deputy director of the Fukui museum.
The museum, which opened in July, is in the city of Katsuyama, where several dinosaur fossils have been unearthed.
The Royal Tyrrell Museum was founded in 1985 and displays dinosaur fossils and other remains, particularly those excavated in Alberta.
Philip Currie, a recognized authority on dinosaurs, is among the museum's top officials and heads its Dinosaur Research Program and Curator of Dinosaurs and Birds.
He has previously visited the Fukui museum to examine its fossil collection and give advice on dinosaur exhibits.