Dinosaurs to come to life at the Museum of the Great Southern

Dinosaur lovers are in for a treat as the prehistoric creatures come to life from this Saturday at the Museum of the Great Southern.

Dinosaur Explore: Lost Creatures of the Cretaceous is curated by the WA Museum and features 14 life-sized dinosaur models from the Cretaceous period.

The models include life-sized Australian dinosaurs — a 7.5m long, 2.3m high muttaburrasaurus, and a 5m long, 1.6m high australovenator.

Visitors can also watch an augmented reality scene of a velociraptor in battle.

The battle is based on fossilised evidence of two species of dinosaurs — the protoceratops and the velociraptor — engaging in mortal combat.

Museum of the Great Southern regional manager Catherine Salmaggi said the exhibition would transform the museum into something resembling a Cretaceous-era habitat.

“The realistic exhibition allows children and adults to explore the past through the recreation of the Cretaceous period from some 145-66 million years ago,” she said.

“The life-size dinosaurs allow visitors to appreciate the true enormity of these amazing creatures from Australia, North America, North Africa and Asia.”

WA Museum palaeontologist Dr Mikael Siversson said the exhibition was influenced by recent discoveries that had changed how we understood dinosaurs.

“When developing the exhibition, we used the current scientific data available at the time and collaborated with a paleo artist who illustrated the dinosaurs, and those illustrations were used as blueprints to build the models,” Dr Siversson said.

The exhibition is ticketed and will run from November 12- February 5.