SUE the T. rex

February 5, 2018

Get to know the dinosaur known as Specimen FMNH PR 2081.

You may know SUE as the hilarious, pun-loving dinosaur turning Twitter into a personal smorgasbord. Or you might treasure that selfie you snapped with this fearsome fossil looming overhead. But there’s a lot more to SUE’s story than 280 characters or a passing glance might offer.

This specimen has been invaluable to the paleontological community since its discovery. And before settling into the luxurious life of a well-kept Chicago museum attraction, SUE had quite the history!

Dating back to the Cretaceous period—about 67 million years ago—this massive predator lived to the upper end of the life expectancy of a T. rex, about 28 years. (How do we know? Dinosaur bones have growth rings, just like trees. After examining these rings, scientists also determined that SUE had an adolescent growth spurt—gaining as much as 4.5 pounds per day—and reached full size at age 19.)

SUE’s sex is unknown; this T. rex is named for Sue Hendrickson, who discovered the dinosaur in 1990 during a commercial excavation trip north of Faith, South Dakota.

Hendrickson spotted a few large vertebrae jutting out of an eroded bluff and followed her hunch that there were more beneath the surface. In the end, it took six people 17 days to extract the dinosaur’s bones from the ground where SUE was discovered.

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