SCOUTING YESTERDAY | S.D. fossil find turned into T. rex tug-of-war
This week in South Dakota history: May 9-15
The largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton ever discovered found a new home a quarter century ago after first being unearthed a decade earlier in northwest South Dakota.
Dubbed ‘Sue,’ the paleontological wonder had been set for its first unveiling at the Field Museum in Chicago where it would be displayed as a permanent exhibit, according to the May 14, 2000, edition of the Argus Leader.
The event capped years of litigation that spotlighted the high-stakes market around rare dinosaur fossils.
Unearthed in 1990 by Sue Hendrickson — the skeleton’s namesake — while working with the private fossil-collecting company Black Hills Institute of Geological Research — both the fossils and the institute would spend years in the court system as a result of the discovery.
