Tyrannosaurus Sue-- The Extraordinary Saga of the Largest, Most Fought Over T. Rex Ever Found
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earth based on the strata in which they were found. No bird had ever been
discovered in limestone beds (which we now know formed about 150 to
160 million years earlier, during the Jurassic period). As a result, some sci-
entists thought the specimen a hoax. But by August 1861, H e r m a n n von
Meyer, an eminent paleontologist from Frankfurt, had confirmed that the
feather was genuine, though "not necessarily derived from a bird."
O n e m o n t h later von Meyer viewed a headless skeleton found along
with the impression of feathers in the same limestone. "The fossil,
indeed, looked like one of Darwin's missing links," writes Wilford. T h e
skeleton had a long bony tail, three clawed fingers, a n d lizard-like ribs
and vertebrae. Von Meyer gave the specimen a neutral n a m e — n e i t h e r
bird nor reptile: Archaeopteryx lithographica ("ancient feather from the
lithographic limestone").
Whether or not the Archaeopteryx linked birds to reptiles (most sci-
entists today agree that it does), it did link science to commerce. T h e
fossil's owner, Karl Haberlein, quickly a n n o u n c e d that it was for sale.
His asking price? The substantial s u m of 700 p o u n d s .
Peter Larson was not about to part with his find of a lifetime. "The Black
Hills Institute's Tyrannosaurus rex will always be available for study a n d
research since it is not for sale," Larson a n n o u n c e d at the Fifty-first
Annual Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontologists (SVP) in
San Diego, California, in October of 1991. His speech a n d slide show,
the first public presentation on Sue since her discovery, lasted 12 m i n -
utes—the m a x i m u m time the SVP granted presenters at that year's
meeting. With only 12 minutes to summarize the first 12 m o n t h s of
research on only the twelfth (and best) T. rex ever found, Larson limit-
ed himself to only his most "startling discoveries": that this was the first
T. rex skeleton with a nearly complete tail; that duck-billed dinosaur
bones found with Sue showed etching and were coated with ironstone,
suggesting that "this material is actual stomach contents"; that the skele-
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ton showed evidence of a n u m b e r of healed injuries; that the remains of
three other smaller T. rex were found with Sue; and that Sue and the T.
rex found by Kathy Wankel in M o n t a n a possessed very different body
types. Larson said he was confident that over the next 18 m o n t h s , "the
completeness of Sue and the presence of other Tyrannosaur material
will yield m u c h new information on this largest of all land carnivores."
Larson then did something somewhat extraordinary: he invited any
paleontologists interested in studying Sue to come to Hill City. Not all
scientists and scientific institutions are so generous. Understandably,
those expending a great deal of time, effort, ingenuity, and, money to
find or secure a special specimen feel the need to get the best return on
their investment. Often that return is realized through the publication of
the first definitive groundbreaking scientific paper or papers on some or
all aspects of the fossil. Thus, until the fossil has been studied and the
paper written, these scientists or institutions will often deny meaningful
access to outsiders. In this sense, science is similar to industry, which also
jealously guards its new products until they are ready for the public.
Peter Larson does not believe in trade secrets. "We've always had a
policy of being open," he says, explaining his decision to invite those who
might be considered his rivals to come and study Sue and jointly publish
a m o n o g r a p h to be called "The World of Tyrannosaurus rex" "Besides,
there was more there to study than I could do in a lifetime." Within a few
m o n t h s , 34 scientists from around the world would sign on.
W h e n Larson issued his invitation, several paleontologists had
already traveled to Hill City. Visits by Currie of the Royal Tyrrell
M u s e u m of Paleontology and Carpenter of the Denver M u s e u m of
Natural History had quickly yielded dividends. Each had identified
additional bones of the three smaller T. rex found with Sue. Another
picture was forming in Larson's mind. "Does the presence of four
Tyrannosaurs of such varied sizes in the same deposit mean that we
found M o m , Dad, Junior, and Baby?" he asked at the SVP convention.
If all Larson had to offer was an exhibition of such impressionistic
snapshots, he might rightfully be accused of practicing soft science. But
for every p h o t o in his mind's eye, there is a scientific paper in his name.
Not only did he visualize Sue as a female, for example, he cowrote, with
G e r m a n scientist Eberhard Frey, an article for the Journal of Vertebrate
Paleontology with the decidedly unsexy title "Sexual D i m o r p h i s m in the
N E V E R , E V E R F O R S A L E 3 9
Abundant Upper Cretaceous T h e r o p o d Tyrannosaurus rex." Translation:
Let's look at the skeletons of a single species of dinosaur and see if they
possess differences that are the result of being male or female.
How did Larson the hard scientist go about this research? He read
everything remotely related to the subject that he could get his hands
on. He journeyed across North America to see all available T. rex speci-
mens. And he traveled to Karlsruhe, Germany, to consult with Frey, an
expert on dinosaurs and on a reptile often used as a model for dinosaur
behavior, the crocodile.
The living crocodile, like the extinct theropods, can be divided into
two body types: heavy/robust and light/gracile. T h e heavy/robust croc-
odiles are male. These reptiles don't have a visible sex organ; it retracts
into the body when not in use. The males are distinguishable from
females, not only because they are larger but because they have an extra
chevron (chevrons are the bony spines attached to the base of the cau-
dal, or tail, vertebrae).
Just as the robust (male) crocodile possessed an extra chevron, so,
too, did the gracile theropod. Therefore, Larson concluded: "In the
theropod, the gracile body was male, the m o r e robust, female. In all like-
lihood, the female was larger than the male."
In addition to studying crocodiles, Larson had also studied birds,
thought to be the theropods' closest living relative. It appears that in all
species of predatory birds, the female is larger than the male. These
species appear to have something else in c o m m o n : monogamy.
The paleontologist then returned to his snapshot. "By drawing a
parallel with the predatory bird, I most unexpectedly came to believe
that T. rex was probably m o n o g a m o u s and maintained family groups."
He added that this possibility was supported by additional data: the
fragmentary remains of a gracile male adult, a juvenile, and an infant
with the robust female—Sue. M o m , Dad, Junior, and Baby. Dad, Junior,
and Baby may have fallen victim to the same T. rex that killed Sue,
Larson speculated. Perhaps Sue's clan had invaded the territory of
another clan a
nd a giant battle had ensued.
Bakker, for one, is impressed. "Pete is a wonderful scientist," he says.
"He teased Sue's personality out of those bones."
Larson hoped to tease even m o r e from Sue's skull. He was particu-
larly interested in seeing where the nerves that ran t h r o u g h her brain
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and skull exited; the trail to the optic nerve might, for example, reveal
clues to her visual acuity. Study of the inner ear and olfactory lobe and
olfactory turbanals (tiny coils of b o n e in the nose) would offer more
information about her sensory capabilities. The size of her braincase
would reveal h o w big her brain may have been. Examination of the res-
piratory turbanals a n d holes in Sue's skull might also solve a question
that had long perplexed scientists: Were dinosaurs cold-blooded or
warm-blooded?
In B a r n u m Brown's day it would have been impossible to get this
information without breaking apart the individual skull bones. Such
bones are very hard to reassemble. "Breaking them apart is not a risk
you want to take with the few T. rex skulls in existence," says Horner.
Fortunately, thanks to m o d e r n technology, neither H o r n e r nor
Larson had to take that risk. A simple CAT (computerized axial tomog-
raphy) scan can p h o t o g r a p h microscopically thin sections of bone and
then reassemble the images in a three-dimensional view without d a m -
aging the skull. Well, maybe not simple. A 5-foot long skull won't fit in
a conventional hospital CAT scanner.
Large scanners are almost as rare as T. rex, but considerably easier to
find. H o r n e r arranged for his T. rex skull to be scanned at the General
Electric laboratories in Cincinnati, Ohio. There, GE x-rayed large prod-
ucts for defects. Larson shot for the m o o n . Bakker and Andrew Leitch,
a dinosaur specialist from Toronto, spent m o n t h s negotiating with the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration for access to the same
kind of scanner used by NASA to look for flaws in equipment like the
space shuttle engines.
W h e n these negotiations began, Sue's nose still lay u n d e r her mas-
sive pelvis in the preparation area at the institute. Chief preparator
Wentz had begun the process of restoring and preserving Sue's bones,
but he was saving the biggest for last. He realized that safely extricating
the skull would be like playing a high-stakes game of pickup sticks.
There is no prep school for this kind of work. Wentz, a thin, bald-
ing m a n n o w in his mid-forties, learned his craft on the job. Before
entering the fossil field, he worked in his family's cab business in south-
ern Wisconsin. He has also worked in a flower shop and sold advertis-
ing. In 1984, a friend told Wentz about a notice posted at the University
of Wisconsin inviting people to dig dinosaurs. A few weeks later Wentz
N E V E R , E V E R F O R S A L E 4 1
found himself beside Peter Larson at the Ruth Mason Quarry. He ended
up staying seven weeks. "I liked working outdoors, liked the fact that
you never k n o w what you're going to find next," he explains. "And I
seemed to have a knack for it." The duck-bill bones Wentz a n d his fel-
low volunteers found were eventually reconstructed and displayed at the
university in Madison.
In 1987, Wentz accepted Larson's offer to work full time at the insti-
tute and moved to Hill City. Soon he was preparing fossils in the lab as
well as hunting t h e m at the quarry. "Working in the field is great train-
ing for being a preparator," he says. "A b o n e is most fragile when you
first expose it, so if you can get it out of the g r o u n d safely, you can p r o b -
ably do the work in the lab."
If you have the t e m p e r a m e n t . Here's h o w Wentz prepared Sue for
her debut: He began by cutting open and removing the plaster field
jackets from her bones, just as a doctor might remove a cast from a
patient's limb. Then he peeled off the a l u m i n u m foil that had protected
the b o n e from the plaster. Now it was time to remove the rock from the
bone. He started with an air scribe—a minijackhammer with a point
the size of a p e n — t h e n moved to h a n d tools like dental probes, paint-
brushes, and toothbrushes. Finally, he pulled out a Micro-airbrade—a
miniature sandblaster—which blasted the remaining rock off the b o n e
with baking soda instead of sand. If the bones were cracked, Wentz used
Superglue to repair them. He filled any gaps in the b o n e with a brown,
clay-like epoxy putty that would soon harden.
Wentz acknowledges that m a n y people might find cleaning a fossil
as tedious as cleaning a house. To him, however, the wonders never
cease. "No one looks closer at a fossil than the preparator does," he says.
"I see it millimeter by millimeter—the valleys, the ridges. Each b o n e is
like a whole other world."
Each b o n e is like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle, too. All the b o n e frag-
ments have to be identified and pieced (glued) together. Larson, w h o is
particularly skilled at looking at a tiny shard and knowing exactly where
it belongs, sings Wentz's praise: "Terry is o n e of the finest preparators in
the world today."
As work on Sue progressed, the Larsons and institute partner Bob
Farrar worked on plans for the new m u s e u m . On March 13, 1992, they
announced the creation of a nonprofit corporation to build what they
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would call the Black Hills M u s e u m of Natural History. A fund-raising
campaign had already begun. The Western Dakota Gem and Mineral
Society had donated $1000, while students at Badger Clark Elementary
School contributed $624.37.
Sue, of course, would be the centerpiece of the proposed 200,000-
square-foot space. The Larsons estimated that it would take another 18
m o n t h s to finish cleaning her bones and another year after that to make
casts and assemble a life-size replica of her skeleton. In the meantime,
her skull would be on display once it returned from its CAT scan.
More than 2000 visitors to the institute had already seen some of
Sue's bones in Rex Hall, a small building behind the institute used for
preparation and storage. "We didn't have a formal exhibit, but whenever
tourists came through, I'd pull 'em off the display floor or out of the gift
shop and take 'em to see Sue," says Larson. He admits that he was happy
for any excuse to visit his prize find. "Even when I wasn't working on
her, I'd go talk to her, fondle her bones. It was my daily ritual."
T h e institute's a n n o u n c e m e n t of its m u s e u m plans energized Hill
City. Although the town lay little m o r e than a stone's throw from M o u n t
Rushmore, it had little to offer tourists save an old gold mine and a short
ride on an antiquated passenger train. Its economy had been stagnant
for years. Average per-capita income in 1990 had been $9000, a full
$3000 below the national poverty level. A m u s e u m featuring the world's
greatest Tyrannosaurus rex would not only put the place on the map, it
It soon appeared that Sue might be keeping company with a fellow
n a m e d Stan in the new m u s e u m . In April the institute a n n o u n c e d the
discovery of another T. rex. This specimen, about 60 percent complete,
appeared to be gracile a n d was presumed to be a male. Larson n a m e d
h i m after Stan Sacrison, the amateur paleontologist w h o found him on
a private ranch in the badlands of Buffalo, South Dakota, about 90 miles
west of Faith.
T h e institute's excavation team spent two weeks camped out at the
site. Unfortunately, rain and snow d a m p e n e d the ground, making
removal of the bones difficult. While waiting for the weather to change,
Larson and Wentz returned to Hill City and the preparation of Sue.
NASA had finally agreed to conduct the CAT scan of the skull. In
mid-May, Larson and Wentz would be taking it to the Marshall Space
N E V E R , E V E R F O R S A L E 4 3
Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. They still had to finish preparing
the skull and determine h o w best to pack it for the road trip south.
Three days after the institute m a d e public the discovery of Stan, the
April 29 Rapid City Journal broke a story that was, literally, news to Peter
Larson. "Sioux Say 'Sue' Theirs," proclaimed a large, bold headline in the
Journal. "The Cheyenne River Sioux say the world's largest Tyrannosaurus
rex was illegally taken from land on their reservation in 1990," began
reporter Bill Harlan's story. According to the article, the tribe asserted that
Sue had been discovered within the boundaries of the reservation and
that federal law prohibited taking such fossils without the tribe's permis-
sion. The Sioux had not filed a lawsuit, but m o n t h s earlier they had passed
a resolution calling for an investigation. "In Sioux Falls, U.S. Attorney
Kevin Schieffer confirmed he had been investigating the case for months,"
the paper noted.
The story took everyone at the institute by surprise. Their only
inkling that the tribe claimed ownership of Sue had come shortly after
the find. At that time Maurice Williams had sent t h e m a copy of the res-
olution with a note in which he wrote, "What an exercise in B.S., vin-
dictiveness, jealousy, hatred, etc. You do what you think, but I would