Thursday, January 4, 2018

Sue in Reno

 
Sue exhibit in Reno's Discovery Museum


Sue is in town—in Midtown, inside the Terry Lee Wells Nevada Discovery Museum. It will stay until January 15, 2018 [1]. I am writing it, since we do not know, if Sue, a Tyrannosaurus rex, was a she or a he. Until now—according to information given on an exhibition panel—scientists haven't found a reliable way to tell males from females:

Sue is technically an “it.”

The fossils that became Sue were discovered by American paleontologist Sue Hendrickson (and her dog Gypsy) in summer 1990 in South Dakota—while waiting for a flat tire to be fixed. She found bones at a cliff base and, looking up, saw three dinosaur backbones protruding from a cliff wall [2]. A long dispute about the fossil ownership followed, but eventually The Field Museum of Chicago bought Sue (the fossils) for nearly $8.4 million. 

The life-sized skeleton is a cast of Sue's real skeleton. You can walk around it in the museum exhibit and will also find digital and hands-on interactive devices to explore Sue's anatomy and speculated way of living.

Sue drawn at the museum wall with sponsor names in each bone


References and more to explore:
[1] The Discovery: A T. rex Named Sue [nvdm.org/exhibitions-and-events/a-t-rex-named-sue/].
[2]  Sue Hendrickson: Biography [www.sue-hendrickson.info/biography.asp].


Looking for extinct animals
Find more on my “Extinct animals” board. 


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