The Yizhou Fossil Museum draws on the same Jurassic and Early Cretaceous geological formations that made nearby Chaoyang world-famous for feathered dinosaurs. Jinzhou sits at the western edge of the Liaoning fossil beds, and the museum houses around ten thousand specimens from local excavations, including fish, plants, and invertebrates alongside the dinosaurs and early birds that attract most attention.
The collection is less well-known than the Chaoyang Geopark to the northwest but complements it well — the Jinzhou beds cover slightly different time periods and taxa, and the museum's scope is broader. The Sino-German Paleontological Museum, a smaller research-focused institution in the city, has additional material for specialists. Together these two venues make Jinzhou a legitimate stop on any paleontology-focused itinerary of western Liaoning.