The Chicago Tribune has a story about the plans to dismantle at the Field Museum. The Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaur, known as Sue, has been on display in the Field Museum's Stanley Field Hall since 2000. She was discovered in 1990 in South Dakota by Sue Hendrickson. Beginning this week, she will be disassembled to make room for a replica of the largest dinosaur ever found - Patagotitan mayorum. She will eventually be placed back on display in the Evolving Planet exhibit in early 2019. Goodbye for now Sue... we will miss you!
The Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton we know as Sue exists somewhere on the spectrum between sculpture and erector set. Sue stands in the Field Museum's central Stanley Field Hall thanks to an armature, a metal framework, that holds in their proper place the bones discovered in the South Dakota earth in 1990. The skeleton was mounted to convey ferocity but also with dismantling in mind, so that scientists wielding Allen wrenches could take out bones and study them as needed.
Beginning Monday, the Field's $8.36 million apex predator - and apex museum specimen - will begin the process of permanent removal from the only Chicago home it has ever known. Sue is making way for a replica skeleton of a new dinosaur, the largest-ever-found Patagotitan mayorum, to take occupancy of the central hall. Over the course of February, the tyrannosaur will be deconstructed, spirited upstairs to its new home in the museum's former 3-D theater on the second floor and then remounted in place for an unveiling in early 2019.
Research Casting International is the museum technical services firm hired to take Sue down and then put it back up again, working with Field specialists.
