Was the T-Rex as fearsome as its reputation? Courtesy Centre for Life

A new exhibition at Newcastle’s Centre for Life will examine whether the legendary Tyrannosaurus Rex deserves its reputation as a fearsome predator.

T-Rex: The Killer Question, which runs from May 13 to September 10 2006, was designed and created by the Natural History Museum, and considers both sides of a new scientific debate about how the most infamous dinosaur to walk the earth would have found food.

Despite having jaws capable of crushing a car, and a mouth wide enough to swallow a human whole, new evidence suggests that contrary to popular belief, the T-Rex was in fact a scavenger, using its size and strength to feed off the remains of others.

Visitors can get up close and personal to animatronic T-Rex models. Courtesy Centre for Life

“This exhibition will have dinosaur fans re-thinking their opinion of T-Rex,” said Linda Conlon, director of the Centre for Life. “We’ve all seen films such as Jurassic Park which portray a fearsome killer, but this may not be the case.”

“Whatever the correct T-Rex lifestyle theory, visitors will get a real sense of the size and presence of the dinosaur,” she added.

The exhibition includes two life-size robotic models that move and roar, interactive displays that test the power of the T-Rex’s arms and legs, and footage from a real life excavation in Hell Creek Mountain, Montana, USA, where the majority of T-Rex fossils have been discovered.

Visitors will be asked to join in the dino-debate, and vote on whether they think T-Rex was the king of killers, or a carcass-crunching scavenger.