SUE, the world's largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, is being spruced up for her 10th anniversary celebrations at Chicago's Field Museum, which unveiled the dinosaur a decade ago.
Most other dinosaurs would have looked like minuscule hors d'oeuvres next to carnivorous SUE. For example, here is a skull of Raptorex dwarfed by the T. rex's enormous skull.
(Credit: Paul Sereno)
The Field Museum acquired SUE in 1997 and spent over two years cleaning and preparing her bones for exhibition. In May 2000, her completed skeleton was unveiled. Since then, more than 16 million visitors have seen her at the Chicago museum and more than six million have viewed a traveling exhibition of her full-sized cast model.
Now the world's most famous T. rex is being prepared for other moments in the spotlight. In honor of her anniversary, The Field Museum has announced three new events:
- RoboSUE: The T. rex Experience,
a journey back to prehistoric times where visitors will encounter a
super-realistic robotic SUE who responds to humans by looking directly
at them and reacting to their movements.
- A new 3-D movie titled Waking the T. rex: The Story of SUE, featuring exciting scenes of dinosaurs and updates on what researchers have learned about SUE. The amazing 3-D images are sure to add a new dimension to visitors' knowledge of paleontology.
- Opening weekend activities at the museum (May 29 – May 31) include appearances by Sue Hendrickson, the fossil hunter who found the popular T. rex. The human Sue will sign autographs and answer questions each day from 11am to 3pm.
Watch as The Field Museum's Bill Simpson vacuums dust bunnies off of SUE in preparation for all of the festivities.
Tags: Dinosaurs, Extinct Animals, Late Cretaceous Dinosaurs, Paleontology, Prehistoric Animals
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