2. By Parker J. E. Carte

3. A real life adventurer Dressing for work Scuba gear one day Jeans on another day Hiking boots one day Her career began in Florida Diving for tropical fish Raising sunken boats Hunting for amber on tropical islands Hunting for meteorites in the mountains of Peru She loved finding new things and learning about them

4. In 1985, Susan met a man named Peter Larson during a trip to Peru He asked her to join his team and help hunt for dinosaurs She moved to Hill City, South Dakota Peter Larson was the head of the Black Hills Institute team The Black Hills Institute was the leader in paleontological excavations and preparation since 1974 Supplying museums with fossils and artifacts

5. Although South Dakota rarely gets fog, it was foggy on that August day in 1990 The exact day was August 12, 1990 The Black Hills Institute had operated a dinosaur quarry since 1979 It was on the Ruth Mason Ranch just north of Faith, South Dakota Many partial remains of the Edmontosaurus annecten (duckbill dinosaurs) had been found there

6. By this late date in the year, the fossil-hunting season was just about over Only the Black Hills Institute’s most dedicated bone hunters continued to work Although nobody had ever found a T. Rex here, the team really hoped to find some remains from one Pete had a flat tire on his truck so he and most of his team went to get it fixed Susan decided to stay behind and continue to work

7. For the last couple of weeks prior to that day, Susan had her eye on a particular rock formation It was located near the camp It was a 60 foot golden cliff She had a sixth sense that there was something special buried there Now that she was alone, she finally had the chance to check it out She knew that it was about a 2 hour walk to get to that cliff

8. It was so foggy that Susan couldn’t see the cliff from the camp If she wanted to get there, she would have to walk there from memory Although she knew that she didn’t want to go in a circle, she ended up doing exactly that She walked for 2 hours, but she ended up back at the camp Determined to get there, she didn’t give up She waited for the fog to disappear, and then she headed out once again

9. Although none of her team members were there, Susan took her dog, Skywalker, with her She kept her eyes focused on the golden cliff By midday, she had reached it She started by walking along the bottom of the cliff She was looking all around hoping to find some bones coming out of the cliff About midway, she found something She noticed that there were bones at her feet She looked up to see the source of the bones Just above her eye level, she could see them She knew that the bones had to come from a large dinosaur

10. She rushed back to the camp She showed Peter 2 bone fragments Immediately, he knew that the were from a T. Rex Unable to believe what he saw, Peter was speechless They were so excited Susan and Peter ran all the way back to the golden cliff Peter said that he thought they had a great chance of it being the most complete T. Rex ever found Peter told Susan that he was naming it after her As they headed that way, Peter had already named it Sue before they even knew if it was a male or female

11. They already had permission of the land owners, Darlene and Maurice Williams, to dig there They had offered to pay them for anything, but they said they didn’t want any money Knowing that they were expecting a major find, Pete had it checked out to make sure that the land really belonged to Mr. and Mrs. Williams

12. The team from Black Hills Institute worked long hours to carefully remove Sue from the rock It took nearly three weeks to complete the job Once Sue had been dug up, the real work was about the start For a nearly complete dinosaur, it would take thousands of hours to do all the necessary work Clean the bones Repair the damaged or fragile bones Trying to decide how everything would fit together if Sue was alive The team worked on the skeleton for months

13. As the continued to get Sue put together, Pete thought about his boyhood dream He was going to finally open his dinosaur museum in his home town Sue would be the main attraction of his museum

14. Almost two years after the find, Pete’s boyhood dream was starting to crumble By May 1992, Sue was becoming famous A dispute arose regarding the ownership of Sue Even though the Williams hadn’t wanted any money, Pete had paid them $ 5,000.00 Other people started trying to claim that they owned the land The FBI shows up with a warrant to say that Sue must be turned over

15. With multiple people trying to claim ownership of Sue, the case ended up in court Finally, the court made a decision in May 2000 The court ruled that Sue was “real estate” Mr. and Mrs. Williams had placed his property in a trust with the Department of the Interior The Williams claimed the $ 5000.00 was only for access to their property Therefore, the court ruled that the $ 5,000.00 that had been paid to the Williams was null and void

16. Mr. and Mrs. Williams decided that they would sell Sue in an auction The court allowed them to do that On October 5, 1997, Sue was put up for auction Sue sold for $ 8,360,000 After the Williams paid the commission to the auction company, they got to keep $ 7,600,000 tax free The Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois, was the high bidder and new owner of Sue

17. Once the museum bought Sue, she was allowed to come back out of the boxes where she had been stored since the FBI took her After two more years of work and millions of dollars to put her back together, Sue stood in her glory at the museum

18. Until Sue was discovered, how long had it been since another T. Rex fossil had been found? Almost 100 years Was Sue really a female? Nobody is 100% sure. Some believe Sue was really a female. Males and females were different sizes. Because of the size, they think Sue was a female. How did Sue compare to other dinosaurs found? Sue was the largest T. Rex ever found. How old was Sue when she died? T. Rex bones have growth rings (like trees) to tell the age. By looking at Sue’s growth rings, they believe Sue was about 30 years old when she died.

19. How many people saw Sue on her first day at the Field Museum? more than 10,000 people How long Sue lived About 65 million years ago Estimated live weight 14,000 pounds Length 42 feet from head to the tip of the tail Number of teeth 58 Length of teeth Up to 12 inches for each tooth Estimated age at death 30 years old Number of hours spent preparing all of Sue’s bones 25,000 hours Auction price $ 8,360,000

20. www.google.com www.bhigr.com www.bhmnh.org www.eduplace.com www.enchantedlearning.com www.factmonster.com www.fieldmuseum.org www.kidscoop.com www.mantyweb.com www.news.dicovery.com www.scholastic.com www.thedinosaurs.org www.wikipedia.com World Book Encyclopedia

21. Pictures by Parker J. E. Carte Information by Parker J. E. Carte Background by Parker J. E. Carte