A dinosaur believed to be the largest real fossil in Ireland has been installed in the new-look Ulster Museum

The six-metre long skeleton of the largest real dinosaur fossil in Ireland has been installed at the foot of a new display tower at the Ulster Museum to mark the announcement of its official reopening following extensive building works.

The Edmontosaurus will be on the lower level of Window on our World, a selection of some of the popular museum's best-known objects, including a skull of ancestor the Tyrannosaurus in the new Earth and Life Gallery and a replica of the Triceratops on the top floor.

The skeleton was bought in 1984

Bought for the Northern Ireland's national collections in 1984, the remains were found in South Dakota, an area of America the duck-billed herbivore roamed 70 million years ago.

The museum will reopen in October 2009

Thousands of other objects will also be returning to the Museum for the ceremony on October 22, notably an Egptian mummy which will form the highlight of a display exploring life and death in ancient Egypt.

The date coincides with the 80th anniversary of the opening of the original Ulster Museum, the Belfast Municipal Museum and Art Gallery, in 1929. Other features of the refurbished building include learning zones, a restaurant and a shop.