![]() Upstairs next to the Apatosaurus/Brontosaurus is a close cousin, a Daspletosaurus, which used to be the museum's star dinosaur until Sue came along. Sue isn't the only tyrannosaurid in the Field Museum. No one knows for sure which evolved from which. Some of the teeth were serrated, like a bread knife. The teeth were as large as 12 inches the replacement process took 2 to 3 years. ![]() Sue was constantly losing and regrowing teeth. Likely the work of parasites, says Orendach, and they might have been what killed her. Those holes in Sue's jaw were there when she walked the Earth. Sue likely lived about 28 years maximum age for the creatures is estimated at about 35, so she was getting up there. Sloppy commercial paleontologists? Nope, it’s arthritis. Some of Sue's vertebrae are scuffed-looking. How long did it take to carefully dig Sue out of the mountain? Seventeen days, by 4 commercial paleontologists. Exceptions are a few vertebrae, bits of ribcage and arm, and her left foot. ![]() "It's the actual color."Īre all Sue's bones real? It is estimated that 90% to 95% of the bones are real, if you reattach the head. "Most people don't think they're real, because of the color," says Orendach. The bones are a deep brown, the color of minerals - mainly iron - in which she was buried for 67 million years. Sue isn't the pale-boned skeleton visitors expect. The Apatosaurus is commonly, but wrongly, referred to as a "Brontosaurus.” ![]() That honor belongs to a 72-foot-long unnamed Apatosaurus that's upstairs and around the corner from Sue's real head. Sue isn't the biggest dinosaur in the Field Museum. It's not her fault she looks puny on display next to huge stuffed elephants in huge Stanley Field Hall. And she's about 45 feet long, depending on how she's measured. As she stands, kind of hunched over in her natural posture, she's listed at about 13 feet tall. "I see it in your eyes," Orendach tells folks on tours. Then the head on the otherwise genuine Sue is. Sue's actual head weighs 600 pounds? That's the fossilized/mineralized weight. Reason: The original weighs 600 pounds and couldn't be supported by the skeletal neck. The real one is up on a balcony overlooking the rest of her, in a display case. The museum drew 1.2 million in 2010, about average for a year without a new blockbuster exhibit. Having the Dead Sea Scrolls on display the same year didn't hurt. Sue helped the museum draw 2.4 million in 2000, her first year there. The winner was Maurice Williams, after a long court fight over who actually owned the ranchland - which is part of the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation - and the bones on it. "We're getting closer and closer," says Marie Orendach, who has led Sue tours at the museum since the unveiling. Scientists remain uncertain regarding the dinosaur’s gender, but research continues. She was named for its discoverer, paleontologist Sue Hendrickson, who found Sue in 1990 while walking her dog on ranchland near Faith, SD. The museum, with support from academic, business and philanthropic institutions, purchased the bones at auction in 1997. She has been on display since 2000 in Chicago's Field Museum, since 1893 the city's showcase and storehouse of mummies and other anthropological souvenirs, plus fossils and preserved plants and animals. Interesting and/or little-known facts about Sue, the world's largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton ever discovered.
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