Sue at The Field Museum

Facts, Theory, Speculation: Facts

Fact: Sue had broken ribs.

How do we know? We did what doctors do--we x-rayed Sue’s ribs.

Here is a close-up of one of Sue’s ribs. From the outside, you can see that there are some bumps on it. To find out if they are breaks that have healed over, you have to look inside.

Look at the photograph of the bone and x-ray of this rib. How many times did Sue break it while she was alive?

Here’s a clue: When an animal breaks a bone, it heals by growing new bone, which usually forms a bump. Breaks that occur after an animal dies look like cracks in a plate.

What’s the answer? Twice. All the other cracks are breaks that happened after Sue died.

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