Mercyhurst College given collection of prehistoric proportions.

Byline: Erica Erwin

Nov. 20--Textbooks and slide shows are fine teaching tools.

But a 7-ton carnivore with 6-inch teeth who lived 65 million years ago?

That'll get a geology student's attention.

A museum-quality specimen of a Tyrannosaurus Rex skull is just one highlight of an extensive collection of casts and fossils being donated to Mercyhurst College.

The first installment of the collection, valued at nearly $100,000, also includes a 2-ton section of petrified wood from Indonesia, a fossilized elephant specimen from Java, a nest of five fossilized dinosaur eggs and a cast of a complete dinosaur skeleton.

"It would …