“Taking that hip off of Sue’s skull was critical. They had just succeeded in separating the T-Rex’s pelvis from its skull – a process that took more than a year and, if done incorrectly, could have damaged the prized skull. The morning of May 12, 1992, the Black Hills Institute paleontology team was still riding high. Larson said he and the entire town hoped that a public display of Sue would “put Hill City on the map.” Their excitement soon turned to outrage as federal agents arrived on the doorstep of the Black Hills Institute. And the scientific impact was huge: One of the most interesting discoveries, according to Larson, was that the injuries to the bones indicated that Sue had died after being attacked by another T-Rex. More than 80% of the skeleton was recovered – making “Sue” the most complete and largest T-Rex ever discovered. “And finding Sue, the Tyrannosaurus Rex – here’s the anchor for the museum.” “Ever since we created that little museum on our parents’ ranch, it’s always been our dream to have a museum here in Hill City (South Dakota),” Peter Larson said, referring to the Black Hills Institute. The bones, still encased in plaster and earth, were transferred to the Black Hills Institute where they began the long, arduous process of separating and preparing them for display – a dream of Larson and his brother, Neal, also a member of his team. They nicknamed the T-Rex “Sue” after Hendrickson, and spent the next few weeks carefully unearthing the fossilized skeleton after paying Williams for the find. Amazed, Larson said he and the team “literally ran back to the site.” Hendrickson immediately showed one of the vertebrae to her colleagues. “There (were) a lot of broken bones dribbling down (and) about 8 feet up the side of the cliff, there were three articulated vertebrae and a couple of other pieces of bone sticking out.” “Anybody who had any idea what a fossil versus a rock (looked like) would have seen it,” Hendrickson said. That foggy morning, she walked right into the discovery of a lifetime. On the morning of August 12, 1990, the Black Hills fossil hunter team’s Suburban broke down so Hendrickson decided to venture out on her own on Maurice Williams’ ranch where the team had spent weeks searching for fossils. Maybe if Sue Hendrickson hadn’t been so impatient – or if she hadn’t gotten lost in the fog, the Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton would still be in that craggy South Dakota rockface. Maybe if the 1975 Suburban hadn’t gotten a flat tire. Larson and his team from the Black Hills Institute in South Dakota had planned to showcase their discovery at the institute.īut that never happened and Larson would soon find himself in the middle of a protracted legal battle that would result in him serving time in federal prison. “We shook hands and he (Williams) was pretty excited about seeing it set up in the museum.” “That was the most that any landowner had ever gotten (for a dinosaur fossil in the ground),” Larson said. Before they had fully unearthed the fossil and realized its significance, they paid Williams $5,000 for the discovery. Larson and his team had permission from the rancher, Maurice Williams, to dig on his property. It is the most intact T-Rex skeleton ever found. That’s the predicament paleontologist Peter Larson found himself in after he and his team unearthed a nearly complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton in 1990, preserved for some 67 million years in what is now the state of South Dakota. Imagine spending your entire career searching for something buried somewhere within the Earth – and then when you miraculously find it, the federal government seizes your discovery.
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