ONE OF the largest predators to have ever roamed the earth is expected to cause a bit of a stir among youngsters visiting West Midlands Safari Park during half term.

The 50ft long moving replica spinosaurus is the latest addition to the popular visitor attraction’s Land of the Living Dinosaurs and is one of the largest dinosaurs in the exhibit.

Complete with long claws, a ferocious crocodile-like head and large pointy teeth, the new arrival is a commanding presence and even makes the park’s life-size tyrannosaurus rex look small.

Head dinosaur keeper Emily Brooks said: “Spinosaurus is one of the most recent carnivorous dinosaur discoveries and will make an incredible addition to the Land of the Living Dinosaurs.

“It was ginormous - bigger than t-rex by a good margin - but it would rarely have been seen on land. In fact, spinosaurus is one of the first dinosaurs paleontologists have come across that is perfectly adapted for an aquatic life. It had a great, long tail, webbed toes found on the end of huge paddle-like feet and powerful arms.”

She added: “The most striking feature of this dinosaur was its enormous sail, which was brightly coloured and as tall as a person. This would have been used to communicate to other animals that it was the ‘top dog’ in its area.

“As the leading contender for the longest and largest theropod, I’m going to have quite a job training this one, but thankfully he prefers to eat fish and large reptiles rather than humans - so I should be quite safe. Hopefully he won’t go scaring any of my smaller dinosaurs away!”

Although both spinosaurus and t-rex ruled the earth during the Cretaceous period, they would never have had a ‘Jurassic Park’-esque battle over food or territory, as they lived on completely different continents and were alive millions of years apart. Spinosaurus’s closest predatory contender would have been a 25ft long sawfish!

Like its new companions, the spinosaurus is animatronic, with moving eyes, mouth, neck, arms and tail which are accompanied by life-like noises, creating an extraordinary sensory experience, giving the feeling of walking amongst these pre-historic beasts.

The spinosaurus is the newest addition to the UK’s largest animatronic dinosaur attraction, bringing the total number of life size, moving and breathing dinosaurs to 40.

Further information is available from the park’s website www.wmsp.co.uk or by phoning 01299 402114. More information about the dinosaurs and animals is on the safari park’s official Facebook page: http://www.wmsp.co.uk/facebook

“Land of the Living Dinosaurs” reopens with the rest of the park for the summer season on February 13 and starts with Explorers Week.

Youngsters can go along and help the park’s onsite Explorer character ‘Livingstone’ find the missing dinosaur with the free Explorers Trail. They can follow the clues around the Discovery Trail, Adventure Theme Park and African Village and then hand in their completed trail to receive an Explorers Medal.

They can also join in the Explorers Club Crafts in the Discovery Room or get close to some of the inhabitants in our encounters and talks running throughout the day.

There will also be Twilight Cave talks, running exclusively through Explorers Week at 2pm and 4pm, where visitors will get to see some of the nocturnal animals being fed and talk to the specialist keepers.