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When and where was Sue found?
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Why is good preservation of the fossil so important?
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What other dinosaurs are closely related to T. rex?
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What other dinosaurs lived with T. rex?
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Aren't there bigger carnivorous dinosaurs known now?
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Was T. rex a predator or a scavenger?
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Was Sue a she?
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What use were T. rex’s small arms?
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Why is The Field Museum's T. rex specimen so important
scientifically?
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When and where was Sue found?
Sue was discovered and collected in the Hell Creek Formation in western South Dakota.
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Why is good preservation of the fossil so important?
If a specimen is uncrushed and little changed by fossilization, it can tell us a great deal about the animal's skeleton, muscles, and other biology. That means scientists can gain better information about how T. rex was related to other dinosaurs as well as how the animal lived its life, such as how it ate and ran.
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Was T. rex warm-blooded like birds or cold-blooded like crocodiles?
Nobody knows. Scientists can’t tell from the evidence so far. Whether T. rex and its close relatives were warm-blooded or cold-blooded is a tricky problem to solve. Closer examination of the skeleton and CT scans of the skull might reveal structures typical of warm-blooded animals.
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What other dinosaurs are closely related to T. rex?
It’s not clear how many different species are on the same branch of the dinosaur family tree as T. rex. Hopefully as more discoveries are made, the list will become more exact. For now, scientists agree that these five dinosaurs are all tyrannosaurids: Tyrannosaurus, Albertosaurus, Tarbosaurus, Daspletosaurus, and Alectrosaurus.
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What other dinosaurs lived with T. rex?
Some of the other dinosaurs that lived with T. rex include: other species of Tyrannosaurus, Ornithomimus, Troodon, Dromeosaurus, Edmontosaurus, Pachycephalosaurus, Stygimoloch, Edmontonia, Ankylosaurus, Triceratops, and Torosaurus.
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Aren't there bigger carnivorous dinosaurs known now?
It is possible that Giganotosaurus and a newly discovered dinosaur from Argentina and Carcharodontosaurus from Morocco were bigger than T. rex. However, much less is known about these dinosaurs, and the specimens discovered thus far are much less complete than T. rex specimens. For now, T. rex is still the largest and most robust carnivorous dinosaur known from complete material.
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Was T. rex a predator or a scavenger?
Scientists don’t know for certain. It’s impossible to tell from the fossil. But if we look closely at the robustness of the teeth and their tight anchoring in the jaws and compare T. rex to large meat-eaters of today, the answer is probably both.
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Was Sue a she?
We don’t know. Sue the T. rex is named for Sue Hendrickson, the fossil hunter who discovered the skeleton, but no one knows if this dinosaur was male or female. Actually, scientists don’t know the sex of any T. rex skeleton. To find out, they would have to compare many fairly complete specimens--many more than the twenty-two that have been found.
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What use were T. rex’s relatively puny arms?
We aren’t sure. What we do know is that their arms, which were about the same length as those of a human, were robust and extremely powerful. Muscle scarring on Sue’s arms indicate that her forelimb muscles were very well-developed. So whatever these dinosaurs were doing with their arms, they were doing it with force.
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Why is The Field Museum's T. rex specimen so important scientifically?
Three reasons:
Size: Sue is the largest known specimen of a T. rex. Her extreme size has set new records for length and estimated weight for her species.
Completeness: Sue’s skeleton is over 90% complete. The more complete a skeleton is, the more information it contains and the more it can teach us about how T. rex lived.
Quality of preservation: Most of Sue’s bones are so well-preserved that, 67 million years after her death, you can still see fine surface details. These details help researchers reconstruct what Sue might have looked like and how she moved when she was alive.
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