Big, Nasty And Stinky?

Left: check out the teeth on this scavenging T.rex!












© The Natural History Museum.

They tower over the heads of visitors. They tear into the flesh of huge, dead beasts. Their roars echo around the high ceilings of one of the oldest museums in the country.

'T.rex: The Killer Question' has opened at The Natural History Museum in London, bringing with it the scariest, most lifelike dinosaurs ever.

Right: cast of a T.rex skeleton.




© The Natural History Museum.

Some of you may have seen the moving, roaring, stinking Tyrannosaurus rex that has been a star attraction at the museum for some time. Now though, T.rex has some company. The new exhibition has two more amazing animatronic dinosaurs, a life-size model and a T.rex skeleton.

Experts from the world of dino research have been arguing amongst themselves for some time over whether T.rex was a scavenger or a predator. This show gives you the chance to have your say, once you've heard all the facts.

Left: an ankylosaur from the T.rex exhibition.


© The Natural History Museum.

A scavenger doesn't kill its own food; it survives by feeding on the meat of dead bodies that it finds. A predator is a hunter, an animal that kills its own food.

T.rex has the reputation of being a fierce, killer dinosaur, but was it really?

Right: Dr Jack Horner takes a close look at a T.rex.














© Discovery.

Dr Jack Horner is a famous palaeontologist from America and is one of the brains behind this show. (Have you seen Jurassic Park? Alan Grant in the film was based on Jack Horner!) He believes T.rex was a scavenger.

He says: "Big, nasty and stinky - that's my idea of T.rex. I don't believe there is any evidence for T.rex being a predator at all. With what we know, the best we can say is that T.rex was 100 percent scavenger."

Left: T.rex as predator in the exhibition.














© The Natural History Museum.

Dr Angela Milner on the other hand, a dino expert from The Natural History Museum and another of the brains behind the show, believes we can't say for definite at the moment how T.rex might have behaved.

She says: "While we know much more about how T.rex would have looked and moved, thanks to many recent T.rex discoveries, T.rex's behaviour is still largely a mystery."

Right: Jossy, aged nine, really liked the exhibition.






© 24 Hour Museum.

You can find out more and cast your vote online in the fantastic T.rex website, built especially for the exhibition. Click here to see the site. As well as info on the two different points of view, there's a great dino trumps game to play!

Jossy and Billy, both aged nine, were some of the lucky kids who got to see a special preview of the exhibition.

Speaking to Show.me.uk Jossy said - "It's really cool, it shows you everything about T.rex." And how would he feel if he bumped into a T.rex? "I would run for my life!" Luckily for Jossy, T.rex have been extinct for millions of years.

Left: Billy, also nine, thinks T.rex was a scavenger.







© 24 Hour Museum.

Your Show.me.uk reporter braved the animatronics just for you and can vouch for the fact that they are very, very realistic. If you're into dinosaurs, you will LOVE this exhibition! Just keep out of the way of those teeth.