A Brief History
On August 12, 1990, American fossil collector Sue Hendrickson made the discovery of a lifetime when she found the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex fossilized skeleton yet found while hunting fossils in South Dakota.
Digging Deeper
The aptly named T-Rex fossil, Sue, is about 90% complete, and has found a home in Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History. Sue is estimated to have been 28 years old at death, and had suffered numerous injuries in her life. She is estimated to be just over 40 feet long, about 13 feet tall, and weighed between 9 and 15 tons.
With 50 to 60 teeth up to a foot long, the T-Rex would be a fearsome sight, but was it a hunter or a scavenger? With the injuries found on fossilized T-Rexes, we think hunter is correct.
Other candidates for scariest dino include the Spinosaurus and Giganotosaurus, both bigger than a T-Rex, and Carnotaurus, smaller but faster than the T-Rex.
Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: What dinosaur do you think is the scariest?
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Nardo, Don. Deadliest Dinosaurs. Referencepoint Pr Inc, 2016.
Relf, Pat. Dinosaur Named Sue: The World’s Most Complete T. Rex. Scholastic, Inc, 2000.
