Oxford is to have one of the best dinosaur collections in Britain.

The Oxford University Museum of Natural History, in Parks Road, has bought a 13-metre-long replica Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton and 12 other replica skeletons.

They include a nine-metre duck-billed dinosaur called an Edmontosaurus Antecedens. The replicas will go on show with the museum's existing exhibits, which include the first dinosaur ever found - the megalosaurus, unearthed in 1824 at Stonesfield, near Woodstock.

The museum has spent £300,000 on the replicas and display equipment.

Museum director Prof Keith Thomson said: "We are really excited about this. We think this will be one of the most exciting displays of dinosaurs in Britain.

"We are already on the dinosaur map for academics, but this will put us on the dinosaur map for non-academics. "This grant is the first stage of our plans to make our displays more attractive. When the dinosaurs arrive next spring, the public will be able to watch them being put up."

It will be second only to that of the Natural History Museum in London.

The Black Hills Institute in South Dakota will make the replicas from fibreglass and they will be flown to Britain next April. The Tyrannosaurus Rex will be displayed in the centre of the museum's main court.

Other dinosaurs to join the Oxford collection include a replica skeleton of a velociraptor

Money for the new displays has come from the Greenbank Trust, an environmental body funded by the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme.

Story date: Monday 15 November

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