A T-rex that once roamed North America is set to return home after a US millionaire paid German palaeontologists to put it back together for him like a giant jigsaw puzzle.

The dinosaur experts in Upper Bavaria have spent months piecing together the 11-metre- (36-foot-) long, four-metre- (13-foot-) tall specimen.

They have used 75 fossilised bones and 300 replica bones made from a special plastic to put together the skeleton, which weighs a colossal 750 kilogrammes (118 stone).

The unidentified US millionaire who paid for the skeleton to be assembled chose the Altmuehltal Dinosaur Museum in Denkendorf in the district of Eichstaett to rebuild it, and the experts there will now take it apart.

It will then be shipped off to the USA, where it will be reassembled by a team from the German municipality.

According to the museum, the original bones used in the project were several skull bones, all hip bones, almost all elongated leg bones, ribs and vertebrae.

Both the original bones and the replica ones, which were fashioned in plastic casts, are held together by a steel frame.

It was reported at the time that the man planned to have the T-Rex as a centrepiece in his home, but it is unclear if that is still the plan, as the wealthy man is now reported to be considering putting it in a place where it can be viewed by the public – although nothing has yet been found.

Palaeontologist Frederik Spindler confirmed that the recipient is still looking for a place to keep the skeleton, which is worth around EUR 8 million (GBP 6.86 million).

The skeleton has been named ‘Torvik’.

To date, the remains of fewer than a hundred different Tyrannosaurus rex have been found, often in the form of just individual bones.

T-rex lived throughout what is now western North America during the Upper Cretaceous period, 68 to 66 million years ago.

It was among the last non-avian dinosaurs to exist before the K-Pg mass extinction that wiped out most plant and animal species on Earth.