Next month, a host of prehistoric creatures will take the Springfield Science Museum by storm. Life Through Time: Dinosaurs and Ice-Age Mammals will roar into the Springfield Museums on June 14 and go extinct on September 14, 2014.

Life Through Time will cover over 3500  square feet of the Science Museum’s second floor exhibit area.  Visitors will get an up-close view of a variety of large-scale robotic dinosaurs including T. rex, Apatosaurus, Pachycephalosaurus, and an adult Maiasaura with eggs and hatchlings. Also on hand will be several robotic Ice Age mammals including a Woolly Mammoth, Baluchitherium, and a saber-toothed cat family of four. Visitors young and old will feel like true paleontologists while sifting through a “dino dig” box and two fossil rub stations.

The robotic giants, created by Kokoro of Japan and Los Angeles, are based on actual evidence from fossil records, scientific literature, and input from professional paleontologists. The random movements of each animatronic animal are individually programmed and powered by an intricate compressor system.

The exhibit serves as a perfect complement to the Science Museum’s permanent collections, which include full-size dinosaur models, fossil skeletons, footprints, and many vertebrate and invertebrate fossils.

On Saturday, June 14, Museum members will be given the first look at Life Through Time at a special Preview event from 9-10 a.m., which will also include a light breakfast and live reptile demonstrations. Additional programming will be available during weekends and throughout the summer, including dinosaur-themed art activities, planetarium shows, and trivia challenges.

The Springfield Museums are open Tuesday-Saturday, 10 am-5 pm; Sunday, 11 am-5 pm. Extended hours for the summer include Mondays 10 am – 5 pm from June 30 – August 30. There is a special exhibition fee of $5 in addition to museum admission for all visitors ages 3 and up to view Life Through Time and American Moderns.