A new permanent exhibit has opened at Dublin Zoo, combining dinosaurs and reptiles.

Zoorassic World opens tomorrow, housed in the refurbished reptile house.

Today FM reporter, Juliette Gash got a sneak peek of the new exhibit this morning:

Zookeeper Garth de Jong said reptiles and dinosaurs are a natural fit, with the Zoo's crocodile population an example of a species that rubbed shoulders with dinosaurs and has " remained unchanged for hundreds of millions of years."

Dublin Zoo director Leo Oosterweghel said 'Stan' - the new exhibit's T-Rex model - is an almost exact replica of the original dinosaur.

"[It is] 12 meters long, it weighs 10,000 kilo's - that equals two-and-a-half elephants," he said. "It has teeth the size of a banana; curved, serrated with little sharp edges to cut through bone and meat."

Zoorassic World opens in the zoo tomorrow, as a permanent addition.

It’s housed in the refurbished reptile house, which was built in 1902 and has lots of natural light.

"Reptiles love light and we decided to keep our living reptiles here and then we added another dimension, we looked back in time and we added dinosaurs," he said.

Garth de Jong says there are plenty of species to see:

"Burmese pythons, royal pythons and king rat snakes," he said. "We have got pre-historic looking lizards, forest dragons - all showcased in beautiful naturalistic looking habitats."

Six-year-old Maisie said her favourite part was "getting to dig up the bones in the sandpit" with her special paleontologist's brush.

Nine-year-old Senan said the exhibit was "absolutely brilliant" adding that it is "just a good environment" with a great atmosphere.

Meet Stan #ZoorassicWorld @DublinZoo pic.twitter.com/WWpnZfcfHN

— Juliette Gash (@JulietteGash) July 6, 2017

Lots of living creatures too @DublinZoo #ZoorassicWorld pic.twitter.com/CiMVLRKvTA

— Juliette Gash (@JulietteGash) July 6, 2017