T.Rex to Star at Bishop Museum

Sue's Vital Statistics:

A life-sized cast of Sue, the largest, best preserved and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex ever discovered, will start the Bishop Museum this year from July 15 through October 15, 2000.  The exhibit is sponsored by McDonald's Corporation and was developed by Chicago's Field Museum, where the actual fossil will be unveiled this May.  the 45-foot-long replica of Sue promises to fill the first floor of the Castle Memorial Building and will be accompanied by interactive exhibits, video footage, touchable casts of bones, and colorful graphics.

Only 21 other T. rex skeletons have been found, and those were less than 60 percent complete.  Sue T. Rex is more that 90 percent complete and extremely well preserved, making it one of the most important fossil finds ever.

Tyrannosaurus rex is the largest carnivore to have roamed North America, and 67 million years after its extinction remains the most widely recognized dinosaur in the world.  About the size of a city bus, Sue is 13 feet high at the hips, had an estimated weight of seven tons, and a skull over five feet in length, which housed a brain large enough to hold a quart of milk.

Dr. Donald Duckworth, president, director and CEO of Bishop Museum, says presenting Sue is a special opportunity, "The Bishop Museum is very proud to present to the people of Hawai‘i , and to our visitors, this extraordinary exhibit of Sue T. rex, a replica of the most important dinosaur ever discovered.  We are most grateful to McDonald's Corporation and the McDonald's of Hawai‘i for their generosity."

Sue T. rex was named in honor of fossil hunter Sue Hendrickson, who in 1990 stumbled upon her namesake at the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation near Faith, South Dakota, while waiting for a flat tire to be fixed.  In 1997, The Field Museum purchased Sue T. rex with the generous financial support of McDonald's Corporation, Walt Disney World Resort, the California State University System, and private individuals.  The cost is $ 8.4 million, setting a world record as the highest price ever paid for a fossil.  With their continued support, these bones are being prepared for exhibition at The Field Museum in the year 2000.

The imminent arrival of Sue T. rex has spurred partnerships with the Hawai‘i Public Library System and state of Hawai‘i Department of Education, each of which will feature special T. rex-themed programs to maximize the educational value - and the excitement - of Sue's visit to the Islands.

Prior to making the cast model featured in the exhibit, Field Museum fossil preparers spent nearly two years preparing the bones and removing them from rock and debris.  Using state-of-the-art equipment, the scientists worked in two glass enclosed laboratories where the public could watch their progress - The McDonald's Fossil Preparation Laboratory at the Field Museum, and a Field Museum-staffed fossil laboratory in DinoLand, at Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom in Orlando, Florida.  In the summer of 1998, Sue's skull was shipped to a Boeing Co. facility in California, where is was scanned using computer tomography - or, CT scanned - providing scientists with a wealth of important new information about T. rex.  Sue T. rex will tour 16 cities around the country.

This exhibit was created by the Field Museum, Chicago, and made possible through the generosity of McDonald's Corporation.  Additional support has also been provided by McDonald's Restaurants of Hawai‘i , Ronald McDonald House Charities, Meadow Gold Dairies, Hawaiian Electric Company Inc, and GTE Hawaiian Tel.

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