Tierpark und Fossilium Bochum, Zoo with fossil museum in Bochum, Germany

Tierpark und Fossilium Bochum is a 1.9-hectare zoo in Bochum's Stadtpark, keeping around 3,600 animals of just over 300 species. Its Fossilium displays over 400 fossils from the Solnhofen Jurassic acquired from Helmut Leich. The Nordseewelten complex includes a 565,000-litre pool for harbour seals and Humboldt penguins, viewed through large underwater windows.

The Bochumer Tierparkfreunde e. V. founded the zoo on 3 March 1933, and the first enclosures for deer, sheep and birds of prey opened near the Bismarckturm on 12 July 1933. Air raids in May and June 1943 destroyed most of the site, and the last animals went to Zoo Wuppertal and the Vogelwarte Essen on 24 June 1943. The tamer Lotte Walther helped finance the rebuild, and Eduard Stirnberg directed the zoo from 1973 to 2012. After the Helmut Leich fossil collection of over 400 specimens from the Solnhofen Jurassic was acquired, the Fossilium opened in 1996.

The Fossilium displays over 400 fossils from the Solnhofen Jurassic acquired from Helmut Leich in 1996, and since 2013 the zoo has belonged to the Association of Westphalian Museums. The Bienenwelten teach school classes and train beekeepers from the Ruhr region, with an interactive exhibition and a live colony.

The 1.9-hectare park lies inside the Stadtpark, next to the German Mining Museum and the Planetarium Bochum. The glass entrance hall adjoins the aquarium house. In the Schau-Futterküche, opened in 2016 as the first in North Rhine-Westphalia, a panorama window lets visitors watch keepers prepare feed and ask questions through an intercom.

The 170,000-litre coral reef tank, built in 1988 in the aquarium and terrarium house, holds blacktip reef sharks. The Fossilium, completed in 1996, displays over 400 fossils from Helmut Leich's collection, including specimens from the Solnhofen Jurassic limestone.