SUE-PER SIZED AWESOME T. REX FOSSIL GETS PRESENTED IN ITS FULL GLORY AT NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM.

Byline: Phillip Zonkel Staff Writer

Talk about reconstructive surgery. This is the first time in several years that Sue's whole body is intact. The first time in 67 million years!

Sue is Sue the tyrannosaurus rex, and her recent unveiling at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is paramount because she's a replica of the largest, most complete, best-preserved T. rex skeleton ever found. More than 90 percent of her original skeleton has been preserved.

Since the first T. rex discovery in 1900, 21 more have been found, but only five are more than 45 percent intact, and only two are more than 90 percent. This specimen is a cast of the original bones that are on display at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History. But this exhibit is still impressive.

The story behind Sue's journey (from a dusty cliff to a government seizure to the auction block) is almost as dramatic as her prehistoric existence.

For a carnivore that was feared by prey and enemies as vicious and menacing, this T. rex wasn't that intimidating at first sight. In fact, it was petrified - in the rock.

On Aug. 12, 1990, field paleontologist Sue Hendrickson, on the second to the last day of a six-week excavation with the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research in the South Dakota badlands, walked along the bottom of a 57-foot cliff and noticed scattered bone fragments on the ground. She looked up and saw six bones protruding from the cliff 8 feet above. Climbing up for a closer look, Hendrickson, a 15-year dinosaur expert, viewed the vertebrae bones. From their shape and hollowness, she realized they were from a carnivore, and the size indicated it was a T. rex.

``Just six bones of a T. rex would've been a great find, but at both ends of the vertebrae it was going into the hill,'' says Hendrickson, who the dinosaur was named after. ``There was great promise of more bones.''

Hendrickson and the other four team members unearthed more than 250 bones. All that was missing were the last 8 inches of the tail, a few ribs, an arm and foot, and a few vertebrae from the neck. For almost the next two years, Hendrickson helped clean and prepare the remains. But the Black Hills Institute found the fossil on the ranch of Maurice Williams, a Cheyenne River Sioux whose land was held in trust by the U.S. government. Though the Institute paid Williams $5,000 for the rights to Sue's bones, the U.S. government had not granted permission for the excavation, and in May 1992, seized her bones.

Three years later, a U.S. district court ruled that the fossil belonged to Williams, who decided to auction it at Sotheby's. In 1997, the Field Museum, with financial help from private donors, the McDonald's Corp., Disney Resorts International and the California State University System, purchased Sue for $8.36 million, the highest price ever paid for a fossil.

In return for their monetary assistance, the Cal State University System sent three groups of five student interns (from Cal State San Bernardino, Cal State Northridge and Cal State Polytechnic at Pomona) to the Field Museum. During those three summers (1998-2000), the students and their faculty adviser, Dr. Stuart Sumida, biology professor at Cal State San Bernardino, spent more than 4,500 hours cleaning and preparing the bones for public display.

For the Natural History Museum display, Sue isn't the only focus. The exhibit showcases a variety of other dino experiences - visitors can observe a fossil prep station, get a multisensory experience of a T. rex in interactive displays, and children can become junior paleontologists in a 500-square-foot dig pit.

In addition, the museum displays its collection of T. rex specimens. It is the only museum in the world that has a T. rex growth series - fossil skull remains that span a variety of ages (juvenile, subadult and adult).

As the ages progress, the skulls become shorter and taller with thicker teeth for hunting and biting large prey, says Dr. Luis Chiappe, the museum's dinosaur expert and an associate curator of vertebrate paleontology. At one point, Chiappe says, the two younger specimens weren't recognized as T. rexes because of developmental differences.

The differences between having a T. rex skull and a full fossil also is immense.

``Having a complete specimen is great,'' Chiappe says. ``It's another window that gives the possibility to learn a lot.''

``A T. REX NAMED SUE''

Where: The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 900 Exposition Blvd., Los Angeles.

When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, through April 22, 2001.

Tickets: $8 adults, $2 children 5-12, $5.50 students with ID and seniors over 62, children under 5 free.

Information: [phone] or www.nhm.org.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1) After 67 million years, Sue the tyrannosaurus rex, a casting of the largest, most complete, best-preserved T. rex skeleton ever found, makes her debut at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

(2) The razor-sharp teeth of the carnivorous T. rex were thick and the jaw extremely powerful in order to hunt and bite large prey.

(3) Field paleontologist Sue Hendrickson, who with four other team members unearthed the bones of the tyrannosaurus rex that was eventually named after her, poses with the dinosaur's enormous foot.