A TOWN'S residents are in for a monster surprise.

A life size, 4.5 metre long model of an Eotyrannus dinosaur is to be the centre piece of a gallery at the revamped Dorman Museum, Middlesbrough, which re-opens to the public next spring.

The fast-moving two legged predator was an ancestor of Tyrannosaurus Rex and lived in Britain about 130 million years ago.

Fossil remains were only discovered in 1997 on the Isle of Wight. Unable to chew, the Eotyrannus bit of chunks of meat which it swallowed whole.

It was brought back from the dead for the delectation of the people of Middlesbrough by dinosaur model makers, Peter Minister Model Effects in Sale.