scinerds:

A T. rex named Sue (by yoffie_2000)

If you’re ever up or near Chicago, IL, I suggest going to The Field Museum and visiting the largest, most complete, and most preserved Tyrannosaurus rex ever discovered. It’s one of the most breathtaking skeletons you will ever see in person, and definitely a great museum overall to explore!

Some information about Sue (catalog number: FMNH PR 2081):

• Overall length: 40.5 feet.
• Height: 13 feet at the hips.
• Estimated to have weighed over 7 tons when alive.
• Weight of skeleton: 3,922 lbs.
• The length of Sue’s skull is 5 feet, and weighing 600 lbs.
• She is named after the palaeontologist who found her, Susan Hendrickson, in Cheyenne River Indian Reservation, South Dakota on August 12, 1990.
• Sue’s bones are the biggest of all T. rex skeletons ever found.
• Sue is estimated to have been 28 years old when she died, making her the oldest Tyrannosaurus rex ever discovered.
• The skeleton is so well preserved that palaeontologists can actually see where muscles, ligaments, and tendons attached, along with the cellular structure within the bones is immaculately preserved.
• Sue is the first T. rex to have ever been discovered with a furcula (wishbone), gastralia (stomach ribs), and a stapes (ear bone).

A lot of my new followers came from the etching post of Sue, so I thought I’d reblog the post I wrote up for Scinerds on some random facts about “her” (we don’t know the true sex, but we call it a “she” because of the palaeontologist who found her). I suggest as well to read the book “Tyrannosaurus  Sue”, which goes into the epic saga that surrounds this skeleton’s journey. It’s actually a bit heart-wrenching to know the amount of drama, legal issues, repossessions, and heartbreak that was attached to this 65+ million year old dinosaur. Sue is one of my favourite dinosaurs ever (for many different reasons), I’ve seen her skeleton in person, and I can’t tell you how much of an amazing experience it was to get up close with this beast (yes, I cried when I first saw her skeleton in person). To see all her injuries that healed and pained her until she died was just as heartbreaking. Who knew one could get so attached to an extinct dinosaur (Big Al’s another favourite of mine), but that comes with the territory!