Sue was a big dinosaur.
She had many bones. Most of her bones were found.
You can see her at a museum. She is very large. Do you want to see her?
Sue was a huge dinosaur.
She was a T. rex. A woman found her bones in 1990.
Most of the bones were still there. Water and mud covered her long ago. This helped keep the bones safe.
Now, you can see her in a museum. She is very big and very old. Do you want to see her?
Sue is one of the best T. rex fossils ever found.
Most of her bones were still there. Scientists found over 90 percent of her bulk.
A woman named Sue Hendrickson found the bones in 1990. She was exploring cliffs in South Dakota. She saw small bone pieces near the ground. She found larger bones sticking out of the cliff wall.
Long ago, water and mud covered the dinosaur. This helped keep the bones safe from other animals. The rushing water mixed the bones together.
Sue was a very large dinosaur. She may have weighed about 8,400 kg when alive. She was likely 33 years old when she died. This makes her one of the oldest T. rex fossils.
Sue lived with many health problems. She had a bone infection called osteomyelitis. This is a sickness in the bone. She also had arthritis. This is a condition that makes joints stiff. Now, Sue lives at the Field Museum in Chicago.
You can see her large skeleton there today.
Sue is one of the most famous dinosaurs in the world.
She is a Tyrannosaurus rex fossil named FMNH PR 2081. This skeleton is special because it is very complete. Scientists found over 90 percent of her total bulk.
Most T. rex skeletons are missing more than half of their bones. Sue is different because she has so many parts still together. This makes her a very important piece of history for scientists to study.
Finding Sue was a bit of a surprise.
In August 1990, a group was looking for fossils in South Dakota. A worker named Sue Hendrickson decided to look at some cliffs. She saw small bone pieces on the ground. Then, she saw larger bones sticking out of the cliff wall. The bones were mixed together by rushing water long ago. Water and mud covered the dinosaur after she died. This helped keep the bones safe from other animals.
There was a long fight over who owned the bones.
A man named Maurice Williams owned the land. Later, the fossil was sold at an auction in 1997. The Field Museum in Chicago wanted to buy her. Many groups helped pay for her, like McDonald's and Disney. The museum won the auction with a bid of $8.3 million. This was the highest price ever paid for a fossil at that time. Now, Sue is a permanent part of the museum.
Preparing the bones was a very careful job.
Workers had to remove all the rock from the bones. This rock is called the matrix. They used special tools to clean everything slowly. Some bones were missing, so they made plastic models. These models were colored purple so people could tell them apart. Scientists even used a special scanner at a Boeing lab. This scanner is usually used to check parts for space shuttles.
Sue tells us a lot about how dinosaurs lived.
She was likely 33 years old when she died. This makes her one of the oldest T. rex fossils found. She had some hard times during her life. She had broken ribs and a torn tendon in her arm. She also had a bone infection called osteomyelitis. Even with these sicknesses, she lived a long time. She was a huge animal that likely weighed about 8,400 kg.
Sue, officially designated FMNH PR 2081, is a legendary Tyrannosaurus rex fossil.
She is one of the largest and most complete T. rex specimens ever discovered. Scientists recovered over 90 percent of her total bulk. This is an incredible feat of preservation. Most T. rex skeletons are missing more than half of their bones. Sue provides a nearly whole picture of this massive predator. She is now a permanent exhibit at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.
The discovery of Sue happened by chance in August 1990. A team from the Black Hills Institute was searching for fossils near Faith, South Dakota.
After finding Edmontosaurus bones, the group prepared to leave. However, a flat tire on their truck delayed their departure. While others went to town for repairs, explorer Sue Hendrickson explored nearby cliffs. She found small bone fragments at the base of a cliff. Looking up, she saw larger bones protruding from the rock wall. Peter Larson, the president of the Black Hills Institute, identified them as T. rex based on their texture and shape.
Preservation of the skeleton was driven by specific environmental events. Scientists believe Sue was covered by water and mud shortly after her death. This rapid burial protected the bones from being carried away by other animals. However, the rushing water also mixed the skeleton together. When the team found her, the hip bones were positioned above the skull. The leg bones were also intertwined with the ribs. This specimen is 73 percent complete when counting individual elements. Of the 360 known T. rex bones, approximately 250 were recovered from this site.
Following the discovery, a complex legal dispute arose regarding ownership. Maurice Williams, a member of the Sioux tribe, owned the land where the fossil was found. The Black Hills Institute had paid Williams for the right to excavate the remains. Williams later argued that he only allowed the removal for cleaning, not for a sale. The property was held in trust by the United States Department of the Interior. In 1992, the FBI and the South Dakota National Guard seized the fossil. After lengthy legal battles, the court decreed that Williams retained ownership.
In October 1997, Sue was sold at a high-stakes auction. The Field Museum in Chicago wanted to ensure the fossil stayed in a public museum. To afford the purchase, they gathered support from many sources. These included the California State University system, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, and McDonald's. The Field Museum won the auction with a bid of $8.3 million. This was the highest price ever paid for a fossil at that time. Since then, other fossils like Stan and Apex have sold for more.
Preparing the fossil for display required extreme precision and technology. Preparators had to remove the rock, known as the matrix, from the bones. They worked in specialized labs, including one at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Because some bones were missing, scientists created purple plastic models to complete the skeleton.
Researchers even used a high-tech CT scanner at Boeing's Rocketdyne laboratory. This machine is typically used to inspect space shuttle parts. This allowed scientists to look inside the massive skull without damaging it.
Sue's bones offer a detailed medical history of her life. She was likely 33 years old at the time of death. This makes her the oldest known T. rex specimen currently published. She survived several injuries, including three broken ribs and a torn tendon in her right arm. However, she also suffered from various illnesses. She had an infection called osteomyelitis, which affected her left fibula.
She also showed signs of arthritis in her tail and likely suffered from gout. A 2009 study suggested she may have had a parasitic infection in her skull.
In terms of scale, Sue was a truly massive animal. She is approximately 12 meters long along her centra. Her weight is estimated through various studies. Some estimates place her at 7,377 kg, while others suggest a range between 5,531 kg and 9,224 kg. Her skull alone weighs 272 kilograms. She possesses the longest known belly rib among theropods. She also has the longest known pubis measured among Cretaceous theropods.
Through Sue, scientists continue to learn about the life and death of one of Earth's most famous predators.
Where will your curiosity go next?
🖼️ Images & Media (8)
More to explore
✨ What else?
Related topics you might enjoy
🔬 Go deeper
More advanced topics to explore
🪜 Step back
Simpler topics to build understanding
What is Nepedia?
A free, ad-free encyclopedia for children. Every article is written at five reading levels, so the same page works for a five-year-old and a fifteen-year-old — use the level switcher above to see this one change. No account needed to read.