A Chinese museum has entered the Guinness Book of World Records for having 10,008 dinosaur egg fossils, the largest such collection in the world.

The state media, quoting an official in charge of cultural affairs, said the distinction has been earned by the city museum of Heyuan, in the northern part of Guangdong province.

Children playing on a building site discovered the first group of fossils in the city in 1996.

"Since then, local residents have helped increase the collection and have discovered the fossils of a dinosaur and its footprints," Huang Dong, head of the museum, said.

Scientists with the Chinese Academy of Sciences have confirmed the fossils belong to a small carnivorous dinosaur species, which lived 70 million years ago. They hope the discovery will shed light on the distribution and evolution of the species.

The find of both fossilised dinosaur bones and dinosaur eggs at the same site has made Heyuan one of the world's most important dinosaur fossil repositories, researchers said.

Researchers also believe China could have the world's largest reserve of dinosaur fossils.