Introduction to "The Natural History of Taiwan"

The natural environment is the basis for human survival; therefore, it is meaningful to have the exhibition of natural history as the starting point for the museum exhibitions.

The island of Taiwan was formed by a rapid rise in the seafloor due to the collision between the Eurasia plate and Philippine Sea plate. The basis of the great diversity of creatures in Taiwan was established with animals and plants emigrating from Southern China owing to the topographical changes in the sea level because of changes in the weather as the Ice Age began and ended. For the last four hundred years, movements of population in Taiwan have been relatively frequent. Many species have been introduced to Taiwan either deliberately or unintentionally from the rest of the world, and they have become new immigrants which cannot be ignored.

The Natural History of Taiwan Exhibition Hall has designed a route that takes visitors to visit the three exhibition rooms of Origin, the Ice Age and the Holocene Period in order of eras. It introduces the sequence of "The Natural History of Taiwan" by exploring the major events occurring in the three time zones. The contents are arranged in the sequence "Geology-Ecology-Human", and then the interaction between people and the natural environment is introduced, so as to relate to the exhibitions of the prehistory and tribes in the southern lands that are to come.