A T. rex Named Sue

Submitted by admin2 on Sat, 10/20/2007 - 10:58pm

A number of Birmingham attendees, including nine members and guests of BPS, made their way to the Anniston Museum of Natural History Thursday night to hear James Lamb speak on Alabama Dinosaurs. James is Curator of Paleontology at McWane Science Center in Birmingham, Alabama. After the lecture, we visited with the special exhibit "A T. rex Named Sue" then toured the rest of the museum. Sue is on loan from The Field Museum in Chicago through January 6, 2008.

Found by Sue Hendrickson in 1990 in South Dakota sandstone, the Tyrannosaurus rex named Sue is one of the biggest tourist attractions to hit Anniston. Sue has a very interesting history, which can be read all over the internet. She finally ended up in the hands of the The Field Museum in Chicago, where they made a detailed, lifelike cast of the skeleton, and created a traveling exhibit, which also includes bilingual interactive displays, life sized casts of bones visitors can touch, with information on the Cretaceous Period, a time approximately 65 million years ago when Sue was alive. The cast in the exhibit is full size, 13 foot high at the hips and 42 feet long from nose to tip of tail. Sue is the largest, most complete and best preserved T. rex ever found, according to The Field Museum's web site. It took museum staff a week to install the 200+ piece exhibit, which is much like putting together a three dimensional puzzle. The cast is so detailed, it could easily be mistaken for the real skeleton, which is currently on display at The Field Museum.

This is the first time the traveling exhibit has come to Alabama, and Anniston and Calhoun County are making the most of it! This oversized ancestor of a bird is attracting quite a lot of publicity - numerous writeups in the local newspaper, The Anniston Star, YouTube Videos, radio and TV coverage, an opening day pictorial postmark featuring a T. rex skull, inscribed wtih:"A.T. rex Celebration Station, Anniston, AL 36201", and already, over 10,000 school kids are scheduled to visit.

After seeing the "Sue" exhibit, wander down the halls of the museum and explore more dinosaur exhibits, view amphibian trackways from Walker County, an Egyptian exhibit, birds and mammals, rocks and fossils, and a cave environment. Another "must see" is the botanical garden and pool next to the museum. According to museum staff, the exotic palms are kept alive and thriving through our cold winter by a combination of tiny Christmas lights and blankets.

Anniston felt this exhibit would help their economy, with an estimated 30,000 people coming to visit, and we can vouch for that! Four of us rode up early, and had dinner at the Top o' the River catfish restaurant, less than a mile from the museum. Their food and wait staff just simply can't be beat! It's too bad there isn't one closer to Birmingham.

Anniston Museum of Natural History - Sue Homepage

YouTube Videos:

YouTube Night at the Museum w/SUE T. rex ! The Field Museum, Chicago

The T. rex named Sue is Coming

Sue is Coming

Articles in The Anniston Star :

Assembly of Sue the T. rex Begins September 18, 2007

Photo Gallery of Anniston Museum of Natural History Crew Building the T. rex Skeleton September 18, 2007

Who is Sue? September 20, 2007

Fossilized Skeletons Provide Clues September 20, 2007

T. rex Facts You Can Sink Your Teeth Into, Source: James Lamb, McWane Science Center September 20, 2007

T. rex Sue's Final Touch September 21, 2007