SUE has enabled scientists all over the world to do more detailed studies of the species’ evolutionary relationships, biology, growth, and behavior than ever before. rex and arguably the most famous fossil in the world. Others were assembled into mounted cast skeletons, which travel to museums and science centers around the world for international dinosaur lovers to marvel at.Īll that expense and hard work has been well worth it: SUE is the most celebrated representative of T. One complete skeleton is stored unassembled in our research collections for further study by visiting scientists. These casts were made for a variety of purposes. rex skeleton, including the furcula (wishbone) and gastralia (a set of rib-like bones stretched across the dinosaur’s belly, believed to have helped SUE breathe).Ĭopies of SUE’s skeleton were created from molds made by our preparators. We have 250 of the approximately 380 known bones in the T. SUE is also the most complete-around 90 percent. In the end, it took six people 17 days to extract the dinosaur’s bones from the ground where SUE was discovered.Īt more than 40 feet long and 13 feet tall at the hip, SUE is physically the largest Tyrannosaurus rex specimen discovered, out of more than 30 T. Hendrickson spotted a few large vertebrae jutting out of an eroded bluff and followed her hunch that there were more beneath the surface. rex is named for Sue Hendrickson, who discovered the dinosaur in 1990 during a commercial excavation trip north of Faith, South Dakota. After examining these rings, scientists also determined that SUE had an adolescent growth spurt-gaining as much as 4.5 pounds per day-and reached full size at age 19.) (How do we know? Dinosaur bones have growth rings, just like trees. And before settling into the luxurious life of a well-kept Chicago museum attraction, SUE had quite the history!ĭating back to the Cretaceous period-about 67 million years ago-this massive predator lived to the upper end of the life expectancy of a T. This specimen has been invaluable to the paleontological community since its discovery. But there’s a lot more to SUE’s story than 280 characters or a passing glance might offer.
Or you might treasure that selfie you snapped with this fearsome fossil looming overhead. You may know SUE as the hilarious, pun-loving dinosaur turning Twitter into a personal smorgasbord.
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