The fossil skeletons of two dinosaurs intertwined in what looks like a final death match have been donated to a museum in the US

The non-profit organisation Friends of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences said in a statement that it acquired the fossilised animals with private funds.

The skeletons will be gifted to the Raleigh museum’s vertebrate palaeontology collection.

The Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops horridus known as the duelling dinosaurs were buried together 67 million years ago.

Their fossils were discovered on a Montana hillside and remain entombed within the sediment where they were found.

The non-profit said the distinct preservation will give museum palaeontologists an unprecedented opportunity for research and education.

The skeletons are worth millions of dollars and were the subject of a court battle over who owned them after their discovery in 2006.

In June, a US appeals court ruled the fossils belong to the owners of the land’s surface rights, not the owners of the mineral rights.