Just about every child knows T. rex. The big, scary dinosaur with the stubby arms and the vicious teeth. But we tend to know these ancient carnivores from movies like “Jurassic Park” (“OBJECTS IN MIRROR ARE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR”) and animatronic dinosaur shows than from anything grounded in science.

The American Museum of Natural History is out to change the way we look at them in “T. Rex: The Ultimate Predator,” which opens Monday. Combining the latest scientific research into how the creatures developed and lived with startlingly vivid models and whoa!-inducing technology, the new exhibition might be, well, a monster. Here is a look behind the scenes.