'T. rex Autopsy': Watch the First 5 Minutes
Who needs to visit Jurassic Park (or, for that matter, Jurassic World) when you can have a close encounter of the T. rex kind from the comfort of your very own couch? On June 7, National Geographic Channel will premiere the two-hour special, T. rex Autopsy, which brings a team of scientists face-to-face with one of those giant lizards, painstakingly recreated through a combination of different special effects techniques. (The special will air globally in 170 countries — because dinos have international appeal!) Fortunately for those scientists, this 46-foot specimen won’t be clomping around like its on-screen counterpart in Steven Spielberg’s 1993 blockbuster and its 2015 sequel, which is due out June 12. As the above exclusive five-minute clip from the special reveals, this anatomically correct T. rex is already laid out upon the operating table, waiting for the team to begin their dissection and learn the lizard’s many secrets.
Related: The New ‘Jurassic World’ Teaser Looks a Whole Lot Like 'Alien’
“It was so beautifully made,” paleontologist Tori Herridge, one of the lucky scientists, remarks in the below behind-the-scenes video, going on to praise, “the detail” the special effects team was able to bring to the rebuilt T. rex. For the record, the dino is the work of Crawley Creatures, a U.K.-based special effects company that has designed animatronic prehistoric critters for such series as Walking With Dinosaurs and Primeval. “This is the biggest single creature I’ve created,” boasts Crawley employee, Claire Green, revealing that it took 113 pieces of fiberglass to build the so-called King of the Lizards. Sounds like a beast of a job.
T. rex Autopsy premieres June 7 at 9 p.m. on National Geographic Channel.
