THEY may have roamed the earth millions of years ago, but dinosaurs are just a week away from arriving at Newcastle Museum.
The city will host Dinosaurs: Surviving Extinction from next weekend.
The exhibition features bones, fossils and interactive dig pits as it traces the path from prehistoric leviathans to modern birds.
City of Newcastle director of museum, archive, libraries and learning Julie Baird said thousands were expected to come through the doors to explore the exhibition.
"Newcastle Museum knows how to bring dinosaurs to life and we're seeing it happen right now," she said.
"What's being assembled in the Museum is a glimpse of a time when life on Earth was in turmoil. Dinosaurs faced their extinction and, as we know, for most it was the end. But for some, life found a way."
Ms Baird said the preparations' were well underway, with technicians preparing a nine-metre skeleton of an apex carnivore.
Replica dinosaur nests and bones you could touch were among the elements that Ms Baird said had been inspiring museum staff as they went.
"This is a sensory collection of everything from eggs to full-scale predators, coming together piece by piece before any other city gets to see it," she said.
"Seeing this world-first display come together is creating a buzz for our wonderful Museum staff and for the city.
"An encounter with a dinosaur in a museum is a treasured memory for many of us and it's fantastic that those memories are being made in our Newcastle Museum."
Dinosaurs on show include a Utahraptor, the Protoceratops and T-Rex sibling Tarbosaurus.
The exhibition opens on Saturday September 28 and runs until March 2 2025.
Tickets start at $7.50 for children, $15 for adults and $40 for a family of four. They are available for online pre-purchase from September 20 at the museum's website.
