Super-Sized Tyrannosaurus Comes to South Dakota

At about 40 feet long, Tyrannosaurus rex was one of the largest predatory animals that ever lived. But even the skeleton of a fully grown T. rex would be dwarfed by its animatronic likeness now standing outside the Children's Museum of South Dakota. Measuring 60 feet long from nose to tail, the super-sized Tyrannosaurus is able to blink, move its tail and roar, and given its suburban setting it looks like it came out of the finale of The Lost World. The museum, in Brookings, South Dakota, will open in September.

Riley Black | | READ MORE

Riley Black is the author of The Last Days of the Dinosaurs and many other books. She is a science correspondent for Smithsonian magazine covering fossils and natural history, and she writes about the prehistoric past for a variety of publications.