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Watch This Giant T-Rex Go Out in a Blaze of Glory Like His Ancestors

Behold, the fiery beast!

Dinosaurs were majestic, fearsome creatures with big teeth and pea brains who roamed Earth a long-ass time ago. Then, at some point, a large flaming rock fell from the sky and wiped them all out, cracking open a gap in the food chain for squishy, bipedal apes to bumble their way into becoming Earth's dominant species.

Now, millions of years later, an animatronic T-Rex has met the same gruesome fate as its flesh and blood ancestors. According to the Washington Post, the giant robotic dinosaur went gloriously up in smoke in front of a crowd of onlookers at Colorado's Royal Gorge Dinosaur Experience thanks to an electrical malfunction. The faulty wiring sparked a flame that soon engulfed the entire 24-foot-tall, life-size Tyrannosaurus Rex.

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Behold, the fiery beast:

"We always knew T-Rex had a temper but, today he blew his top," the dinosaur theme park wrote Thursday in a Facebook post. "There was an unfortunate (and rare) electrical issue with our mighty T-Rex and he is no longer. You might even say…extinct."

The park's staff on-site quickly responded to the fire, making sure there were no injuries to visitors, but the T-Rex was too far gone to save. When the flames finally went out, nothing was left but the robot's hulking, metal endoskeleton, looking a bit like some kid's attempt to craft a T-Rex with an Erector set.

The Royal Gorge Dinosaur Experience told the AP that it's planning to order a brand-new animatronic T-Rex by the time summer rolls around—hopefully one with fewer flame-inducing issues. For now, though, the metal skeleton is still standing like some freaky dino Terminator, lording over the park.

Rest in peace, you glorious metal monster. Hopefully you're now off roaming free with your fellow dinosaur brethren in the great Mesozoic afterlife where the kills are forever fresh and Stravinsky never stops playing.

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