On This Day In History: ‘Sue’ Largest Tyrannosaurus Rex Skeleton Discovered In South Dakota – On August 12, 1990

AncientPages.com - On August 12, 1990, the largest and best-preserved Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton to date was discovered and nicknamed “Sue”.

The discoverer was the paleontologist Susan “Sue” Hendrickson. In the meantime, the skeleton was sold for 7.6 million dollars, the highest price ever paid for a dinosaur skeleton.

Tyrannosaurus Rex specimen "SUE" on display at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois. Image credit: Evolutionnumber9  - CC BY-SA 4.0

Sue Hendrickson discovered the skeleton in South Dakota. Its great value stems from the fact that it is 80% complete.

It is 12.9 meters long, and it is estimated that the Tyrannosaurus Rex to which it belonged weighed around 6.4 tons when it was alive.

Due to the nickname “Sue”, it is often referred to as a female’s skeleton, but the actual sex of the individual in question remains unknown.

“Sue” lived around 67 million years ago, and died at the age of 28, the longest any tyrannosaur is known to have lived.

This Tyrannosaurus, nicknamed Sue in her honor, was the object of a legal battle over its ownership.

In 1997 this was settled in favor of Maurice Williams, the original land owner. The fossil collection was purchased by the Field Museum of Natural History at auction for $7.6 million, making it the most expensive dinosaur skeleton to date.

Sue's skull. Image credit: Geoffrey Fairchild - CC BY 2.0

Today the skeleton is an exhibit in the famous Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. The skeleton’s teeth are up to 30.5 centimeters long, and its huge skull weighs 272 kilograms.

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