Tyrannosaurus Sue-- The Extraordinary Saga of the Largest, Most Fought Over T. Rex Ever Found

by Steve Fiffer

  "But here there were lots of small fragments and the markings on those

  were hard to figure out." On opening some of the jackets, the prepara-

  tors found bones they didn't think had been unearthed by the institute.

  In the end, they determined that only a foot, an arm, and a few ribs and

  vertebrae were missing.

  Brochu's needs were not only subject to the learning curve of the

  preparators. Phil Fraley, w h o had been hired by the m u s e u m to m o u n t

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  the skeleton, was also h u n g r y for bones—preferably the hips first. He

  wanted to start his model in the middle and work outward toward the

  tail and skull.

  The New Jersey-based Fraley had established his reputation by

  remounting the B a r n u m Brown T. rex a n d several h u n d r e d other verte-

  brate fossils at the American M u s e u m of Natural History. Edwin Cope,

  it turned out, was not the only expert ever to err in constructing a

  dinosaur. At the t u r n of the century, the American Museum's H e n r y

  Fairfield O s b o r n stood the B a r n u m Brown T. rex upright, its legs mea-

  suring fifteen feet from hip to floor. T h e decision to do so was d o n e in

  part for show, in part because the technology of the day m a d e it diffi-

  cult to brace the dinosaur in a less erect fashion, a n d in part because

  O s b o r n did not have an entire specimen with which to work, writes

  Horner. In fact, "To make the T. rex look whole a n d steady, O s b o r n

  m a d e other creative decisions. He added several feet of imaginary lizard

  like tail, which also helped to stabilize the s t a n d - u p T. rex" As a result,

  says Horner, "For generations, in its most famous a n d influential repre-

  sentation, T. rex has been viewed as a stiff, long-tailed lumbering beast."

  Charles Knight, w h o worked at the American M u s e u m of Natural

  History before painting the murals in the Field M u s e u m , portrayed

  many of his T. rex as upright, too. T h e tall, plodding creatures in movies

  like Godzilla were based on o n e of Knight's paintings, as was a 25-foot-

  long animated T. rex at the Sinclair Refining Company's dinosaur exhib-

  it at the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago.

  In 1992, the American M u s e u m finally dismantled its famous rex.

  After m u c h internal debate, the staff chose a different pose: head down,

  back horizontal, jaws shut. Fraley's r e m o u n t e d skeleton was unveiled in

  1994.

  Prior to its 2000 unveiling, the Field M u s e u m was not about to

  reveal Sue's exact pose. Flynn would say only that the museum's o w n

  experts had designed a "scientifically accurate biology of the living ani-

  mal." He explained that such a design is influenced by the study of "joint

  surfaces that limit the range of m o t i o n " a n d the examination of the hind

  limbs and tail. "Once you set constraints, you have aesthetic latitude," he

  explains.

  Many dinosaurs that stand in m u s e u m s a r o u n d the world are plas-

  ter or fiberglass casts of the original. Not Sue. Only her skull would be

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  cast for the Field's exhibit. T h e m u s e u m estimates that Sue weighed 7

  tons. At about 600 p o u n d s , the real skull could not be supported by the

  fleshless skeleton. It was given its own space on a mezzanine looking

  d o w n u p o n Sue and her faux head.

  The decision to use the original Sue, not a cast, presented a chal-

  lenge for Fraley and his team. They had to m o u n t the skeleton in such a

  way that each b o n e could be removed for future study. This meant "no

  p e r m a n e n t glues, no holes drilled, and no anchors to the bone," says

  Simpson.

  Fraley's solution: Each b o n e would be cradled in a hand-forged

  metal bracket—"like a d i a m o n d in its setting," said project coordinator

  Louis. The brackets would be hinged and locked, but each individual

  b o n e could be unlocked a n d removed for research.

  W h o would be conducting future research? The m u s e u m hoped to

  sponsor workshops and symposia to study specific elements of the

  skeleton and produce scientific papers. "We would like to let younger

  scientists do this research," said Flynn, w h o added, that like any other

  specimen in the m u s e u m , Sue would also be available for study by all

  qualified scholars. Such study would begin only after Brochu published

  his m o n o g r a p h .

  Although Peter Larson had aroused the world's curiosity and imag-

  ination with his papers and snapshots of Sue's life, the m u s e u m was, as

  Louis put it, "pretty tight-lipped" about what it learned about Sue in the

  m o n t h s leading up to her unveiling. Flynn, w h o between 1996 and 1999

  led expeditions to Madagascar that found the oldest dinosaur bones on

  record, says a conscious decision was m a d e to limit public p r o n o u n c e -

  ments to May 1999 and May 2000. "We wanted to wait for peer review,"

  he explains. "There is a great o p p o r t u n i t y for public education here

  because of all the hype. O u r job is to separate out the fantasy and story-

  telling a n d Jurassic Park. If we d e b u n k hyperbolic speculation, that's not

  bad." Adds Simpson: "The skeleton is so complete that it actually con-

  strains the stories."

  T h e May 1999 science briefing centered on the results of the CT

  scan of Sue's skull at Boeing Company's Rocketdyne lab in Ventura

  County, California. In August 1998, the skull had been shipped to the

  West Coast after being foamed a n d packed vertically in an octangular

  crate customized by a structural engineer. Boeing conducted 500 hours

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  of scans over a six-week period, or, as one Boeing technician put it,

  "more radiation than Godzilla received when the French A - b o m b was

  detonated in Polynesia." Brochu and Masek were present for m u c h of

  the work. When Brochu went back to Chicago, the Boeing operator sent

  him data over the Internet.

  The m u s e u m received a total of 748 CT images. These x-ray slices

  filled eight CDs and could be viewed individually or stacked to create a

  three-dimensional image of Sue's skull a n d snout. With the assistance of

  a computer program, Brochu could take a virtual journey t h r o u g h Sue's

  head.

  Brochu was delighted with what he saw. The scan revealed that the

  olfactory passage—where nerves for smell passed between the nose a n d

  the brain—was huge, he said. "This thing must have smelled its way

  through life." Did that indicate it was a scavenger or predator? Like

  Larson, Brochu said he suspected that T. rex was an opportunistic feed-

  er that killed some of its food and ate carcasses it found. A m o n g the

  other revelations: Sue's braincase was only "the size of a quart of milk."

  Brochu was not ready to pass j u d g m e n t on most of Larson's snap-

  shots or theories. "I'd love to be able to tell you a lot of things about this

  specimen, but I can't yet," he told National Geographic magazine. "Was

  it male or female? I don't know. W a r m - b l o o d e d or cold-blooded? I'd

&nbs
p; love to tell you this dinosaur was purple with green spots. I'd love to be

  able to tell you the s o u n d it made. But I can't."

  Brochu did say that he had found further evidence suggesting that

  birds evolved from theropods. As Larson had previously noted, bones in

  Sue's jaws were similar to those in m o d e r n birds. And, as Larson had

  also observed, Sue's skull bones and vertebrae were air-filled, like those

  of their feathered friends.

  Larson had concluded that Sue suffered a broken fibula that had

  healed. Brochu agreed. He was not certain, however, that Sue had been

  bitten by a fellow dinosaur; what Larson thought were teeth marks may

  just have been infected areas. The m u s e u m ' s researcher also suspected

  that Sue had died of natural causes rather than in battle. Brochu's inter-

  im findings were the focus of an exhibit premiering at the end of May

  1999: "Sue: T h e Inside Story."

  Shortly before this exhibit opened, in-house staff began making

  molds of the bones prepared in the m u s e u m and at DinoLand USA.

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  These bones were then sent to Peter May, a highly regarded cast maker

  based in Beamsville, Ontario. W h e n he finished with them, May sent the

  molds on to Fraley, w h o used t h e m to make projections pending the

  arrival of the bones themselves.

  To coordinate these comings and goings as well as everything else

  related to Sue, Louis held a multidisciplinary group meeting every Monday

  morning. The group included representatives of the exhibits, education,

  geology, marketing, and public relations departments. Topics ranged from

  the SueCam, which afforded Internet visitors a live view of preparation, to

  the Sue Web site, which offered both information and merchandise.

  A m o n g the items that could be purchased on line or in the museum store:

  several styles of Sue T-shirts and sweatshirts ranging in price from $12.95

  to $35.95; Sue baseball caps priced at about $15; a Sue coffee m u g at $6.95;

  a mini T. rex skull for $68; a cast of a tooth for $44; a cast of a claw for $33;

  and a brass Sue ornament for $14. Louis reports that sales were brisk.

  Louis also served as liaison with McDonald's and Disney. The

  Colossal Fossil kit distributed in the spring of 1998 generated the most

  favorable response from teachers of any packet in McDonald's history,

  says Nemeth. In the fall of 1999, the c o m p a n y also opened a show about

  Sue for elementary schools, "Ronald McDonald and the Amazing

  Thinking Machine."

  Orchestrating the tour of the two Sue casts was m o r e complicated.

  "This was the area I was most concerned about," says Daly. "We didn't

  need to be persuaded about the logistics of moving it. I always knew that

  was something we could do. T h e concerns I had was m o r e on the recep-

  tivity—could we create something and make it well enough financially

  structured so that local markets would pick it up?"

  McDonald's is organized in 40 regions in the United States. Coops

  within the regions buy advertising, food, and paper goods together and

  plan p r o m o t i o n a l activities. Once Sue was acquired, McDonald's offered

  each of the regions the o p p o r t u n i t y to sponsor a traveling exhibit that

  would include the 45-foot cast skeleton of Sue, a video, freestanding

  interactive exhibits, touchable casts of bones, and interactive anatomi-

  cal models that would allow visitors to control the movements of a T.

  rex's jaw, tail, neck, a n d forelimbs. Headquarters provided a "pro forma

  of what this thing was going to look like and predicted costs," but the

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  local markets had to choose a date and find a site—a m u s e u m or edu-

  cational institution. The Field M u s e u m had to approve the venue in

  each market.

  From the beginning McDonald's envisioned offering the tour to the

  U.S. markets over the three-year period following the unveiling. "Then,

  hopefully on the strength of the performance in the United States, we'd

  be able to take it international so that it had even m o r e value to our ini-

  tial investment," says Daly. Initially, the company thought Sue would stay

  in a region for two weeks before moving on. "But the [Field] m u s e u m ,

  said 'whoa.' They wanted it for two m o n t h s in a market and then anoth-

  er m o n t h to pack it all up. They have to do it right by their museums."

  As the unveiling approached, the two casts were slated to visit 15 cities,

  beginning with Boston and Honolulu. Other sites included St. Paul; Los

  Angeles; Columbus, Ohio; Indianapolis; Kansas City, Missouri; Louisville;

  Portland, Oregon; Fresno; Toledo; Salt Lake City; Dallas; Seattle; and

  Milwaukee.

  Disney's task was considerably easier than McDonald's. DinoLand

  merely had to be reconfigured to a c c o m m o d a t e the fossil prep lab a n d

  the cast of Sue. The T. rex would stand in the middle of the park, out-

  side, but under a shelter. Educational graphics also had to be created.

  How do m u s e u m experts look at these efforts by McDonald's a n d

  Disney? Does taking replicas of Sue on tour or standing a replica in a

  theme park cross the line between science and industry? Is this type of

  corporate/museum partnership cause for alarm or cause for celebra-

  tion? A little background is in order.

  In recent years the relationships between several m u s e u m s and their

  patrons or exhibition sponsors have raised eyebrows a n d questions

  about the division between art and commerce. In 1998, for example, the

  Solomon B. Guggenheim M u s e u m in New York m o u n t e d an exhibition

  called the "Art of the Motorcycle." BMW, a major manufacturer of

  motorcycles, sponsored the show. In 1999, the Guggenheim a n n o u n c e d

  that in the fall of 2000 it would present a major retrospective on the cre-

  ations of Italian designer Giorgio Armani. According to The New York

  Times, however, "What the m u s e u m did not acknowledge was that some

  eight m o n t h s earlier, Mr. A r m a n i had become a sizable benefactor to the

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  Guggenheim." H o w sizable? Perhaps as m u c h as $15 million, said the

  Times.

  The Guggenheim has stated that it would have m o u n t e d the Armani

  exhibition even if the designer hadn't contributed. Whether this is true

  or not, corporations are "pushing the envelope" by demanding quid pro

  quos, says Ed Able, president of the 3000-member American Association

  of Museums. Able sees a disturbing trend in which corporations have

  ceased creating philanthropic budgets for making contributions to not-

  for-profit institutions like m u s e u m s . Instead, the corporations make

  such contributions from their marketing budgets—and the marketing

  departments look for something in return.

  The challenge for a m u s e u m , says Able, is "to separate corporate

  support from content control. If a corporation exerts influence on

  what's in an exhibit and how it's exhibited, [it is an] absolute violation

  of ethical standards." He points to "Sensation," a 1999 show at the

  Brooklyn M u s e u
m of Art as a cautionary tale. The m u s e u m receives

  funding from the city of New York. New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani

  tried, unsuccessfully, to close d o w n the exhibition because he and oth-

  ers found some of its paintings and sculptures offensive. Able finds this

  attempt at control nefarious. But he is also disturbed by the control

  exerted by the exhibition's major financial backer, British advertising

  magnate and art collector Charles Saatchi.

  According to a front-page article in The New York Times written by

  David Barstow, "The director of the Brooklyn M u s e u m of Art gave . . .

  Saatchi a central role in determining the artistic content of 'Sensation,'

  so m u c h so that senior m u s e u m officials expressed concern that Mr.

  Saatchi had usurped control of the exhibition." Apparently, when muse-

  um staffers wanted to eliminate certain paintings from the show, Saatchi

  overruled them.

  Saatchi owned the paintings and the sculptures in the exhibition.

  He had also pledged $160,000 in financial support to the m u s e u m — a

  fact the m u s e u m concealed for m o n t h s , according to the Times. Saatchi,

  like other collectors, sometimes sells works after they have been exhib-

  ited. Christie's auction house, where Saatchi has sold art, also con-

  tributed $50,000 to the show. Arguably a painting may become more

  valuable and draw m o r e at auction after it appears in an exhibition.

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  The Field Museum would leave itself open to criticism if it accept-

  ed McDonald's or Disney's support and then m o u n t e d an exhibit on

  hamburgers or theme parks. Criticism would also arise if there were evi-

  dence that McDonald's or Disney pressured the m u s e u m to exhibit Sue

  in a particular way or compromised the scientific study of the specimen.

  McDonald's acknowledges that it would receive some negative feedback

  if it turned Sue into a H a p p y Meal or action figure.

  Because n o n e of these scenarios appeared to have materialized, Able

  and others gave the m u s e u m and its sponsors high marks for the pre-

  liminary handling of Sue. Philanthropic activities, as opposed to m a r -

  keting activities, present the corporation as a good citizen in the com-

  munity, says Able. "I frankly admire the way in which McDonald's has

  gone about sending a message that it cares about the c o m m u n i t y — b e it