Tens of millions of years separate humans from dinosaurs. A new exhibition at Saint Louis Science Center brings St. Louisans closer than ever to one special specimen. “SUE: The T. rex Experience” is an immersive new experience that invites visitors to see a cast of the best-preserved Tyrannosaurus rex ever found. The jaw-dropping exhibition, which debuted at the Science Center in May and runs through early September 2024, offers an exclusive opportunity to get up close and personal with a dinosaur that needs to be seen to be believed.
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“SUE the T. rex is the most complete T. rex ever discovered, having nearly 90% of their bones found,” says Kaylia Eskew, the Science Center’s manager of special exhibitions and featured experiences. “Other T. rex specimens come in closer to 60%.”
SUE is more than just a (near) complete specimen. It’s also one of the best-preserved dinosaurs because SUE died in an area with water, allowing the body to be covered with water and clay almost immediately. As a result, SUE is unlike any other fossil. Eskew says its bone condition “allows us to see how ligaments attached, teaching us how they moved, how they lived, how they found food and traveled, and even about their intelligence.”
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Photo courtesy of Saint Louis Science Center
Researchers discovered the fossil in 1990 at the Hell Creek Formation, an excavation site in South Dakota. American marine archaeologist and paleontologist Susan Hendrickson – for whom SUE is named – spotted a bone sticking out of the side of a cliff, and the team of researchers soon got to work. Remarkably, it took only 17 days and six people to remove the specimen from the ground. SUE was first displayed in 1991 at the Field Museum in Chicago, where it remains a permanent attraction.
“While SUE lived in what is now South Dakota, the world was a very different place 67 million years ago,” Eskew says. “The area was a warm, humid environment with flourishing forests along the shore of an inland sea.”
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Photo courtesy of Saint Louis Science Center
The Science Center’s new exhibit helps visitors step back in time to explore SUE’s world. It features a full-size cast of SUE, which measures 40 feet from snout to tail and 13 feet tall at the hip, as well as other sights, sounds and smells that recreate the planet as it once was. Touch the texture of dinosaur skin, smell the foul breath of a carnivore, feel the mighty rumble of a T. rex roar and see a full-size cast of the T. rex’s nemesis, the Triceratops. The SUE on display also includes a light show that highlights the many injuries SUE sustained and survived during their life.
“It’s a multisensory experience that allows dino lovers of all ages to walk in the past when dinosaurs [and SUE] walked the Earth,” Eskew says. “Through the use of both real and recreated fossils, this exhibition takes you through not only the world SUE lived in but also the discovery of the bones and the modern technology we are using to study SUE.”
Eskew adds that SUE is “the perfect example to show us how our understanding of the past is always changing.” We’ll never know exactly what the world looked like 67 million years ago (or SUE’s gender for that matter), but the famous fossil – and advancements in science – help paint a clearer picture.
“SUE’s wishbone is a direct link to the dinosaurs’ genetic link to birds and, more specifically, for the T. rex to chickens,” Eskew says. “SUE also still has their forearms, which through CT scanning, we have a better understanding of how the arms are attached to the body. This knowledge has led to a long road of research of how the arms were used and why the Tyrannosaurid family evolved this way.”
The exhibition is available in English and Spanish. While the Science Center is always free to enter, the SUE experience is ticketed. Visitors can secure their spot online or onsite, and Saint Louis Science Center members receive a discount of up to 50% off admission.
Saint Louis Science Center, 5050 Oakland Ave., St. Louis, slsc.org