zoom

scinerds:

A T. rex named Sue (by yoffie_2000)

If you’re ever up or near Chicago, IL, I suggest going to The Field Museum and visiting the largest, most complete, and most preserved Tyrannosaurus rex ever discovered. It’s one of the most breathtaking skeletons you will ever see in person, and definitely a great museum overall to explore!

Some information about Sue (catalog number: FMNH PR 2081):

• Overall length: 40.5 feet.
• Height: 13 feet at the hips.
• Estimated to have weighed over 7 tons when alive.
• Weight of skeleton: 3,922 lbs.
• The length of Sue’s skull is 5 feet, and weighing 600 lbs.
• She is named after the palaeontologist who found her, Susan Hendrickson, in Cheyenne River Indian Reservation, South Dakota on August 12, 1990.
• Sue’s bones are the biggest of all T. rex skeletons ever found.
• Sue is estimated to have been 28 years old when she died, making her the oldest Tyrannosaurus rex ever discovered.
• The skeleton is so well preserved that palaeontologists can actually see where muscles, ligaments, and tendons attached, along with the cellular structure within the bones is immaculately preserved.
• Sue is the first T. rex to have ever been discovered with a furcula (wishbone), gastralia (stomach ribs), and a stapes (ear bone).

(via bonewhiteglory)