Tyrannosaurus Sue-- The Extraordinary Saga of the Largest, Most Fought Over T. Rex Ever Found Read online

  TYRANNOSAURUS SUE

  TYRANNOSAURUS SUE

  T H E E X T R A O R D I N A R Y S A G A O F T H E L A R G E S T ,

  M O S T F O U G H T O V E R T . R E X E V E R F O U N D

  S T E V E F I F F E R

  FOREWORD BY ROBERT T. BAKKER

  IS

  W. H. Freeman and Company

  New York

  Text design by Nancy Singer Olaguera

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Fiffer, Steve.

  Tyrannosaurus Sue : the extraordinary saga of the largest, most fought over

  T. rex ever found / Steve Fiffer ; foreword by Robert T. Bakker.

  p. cm.

  Includes index

  ISBN 0-7167-4017-6

  1. Tyrannosaurus rex—South Dakota. 2. Paleontology—South Dakota—

  History—20th century. 3. Larson, Peter. I. Title.

  QE862.S3 F54 2000

  567.912'9'09783—dc21 00-021596

  © 2000 by Steve Fiffer. All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or

  electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording, nor may it be

  stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise copied for public or pri-

  vate use, without written permission from the publisher.

  Printed in the United States of America

  Third Printing, 2000

  W. H. Freeman and Company

  41 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10010

  Houndmills, Basingstoke, RG21 6XS, England

  For my family

  Or speak to the earth, and let it teach you

  Job 12:8

  C O N T E N T S

  F o r e w o r d x i

  A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s x v

  P R O L O G U E 1

  1 IT M U S T BE A T. REX 5

  2 N E V E R , E V E R FOR S A L E 27

  3 Y O U B E T T E R GET OUT H E R E , PETE 47

  4 T A K I N G A H O W I T Z E R TO A FLY 65

  5 W H O O W N S S U E ? 8 9

  6 I S A D I N O S A U R " L A N D " ? 1 0 7

  7 J U R A S S I C F A R C E 1 2 1

  8 Y O U C A N I N D I C T A H A M S A N D W I C H 1 3 7

  9 N E G O T I A T I O N S A R E U N D E R WAY 1 5 1

  1 0 T H E Y ' R E NOT C R I M E S 1 6 1

  1 1 I K E P T W A I T I N G FOR S O M E T H I N G T O H A P P E N 1 8 3

  1 2 E V E R Y T H I N G C H A N G E D T H A T DAY 1 9 5

  1 3 Y O U MAY A P P R O A C H H E R M A J E S T Y 2 1 3

  E P I L O G U E 2 3 5

  I n d e x 2 3 7

  F O R E W O R D

  Robert T. Bakker, PhD

  Dinosaurs are the most popular form of fossilized life the world over.

  And Tyrannosaurus rex is the most popular dinosaur a m o n g people of

  all ages, all cultures, and all nationalities. And the great skeleton called

  Sue is, by far, the most famous single skeleton of the "tyrant lizard king"

  ever found. A specimen of surpassing beauty, Sue can stun into silence

  even the most jaded a n d cynical senior scientist. Scholars everywhere

  agree that these bones are of t r e m e n d o u s importance in o u r u n d e r -

  standing of the final days of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago, when

  the Age of Reptiles was about to end in worldwide catastrophe, a n d the

  legions of furry m a m m a l s were poised to take over the land ecosystems

  and evolve into horses a n d tigers, lemurs and monkeys, apes a n d

  mankind.

  The story of Sue is an extraordinary tale—it has the r o m a n c e of a

  paleontological quest, the search for the perfect rex by a young fossil

  hunter who, as a kid, dreamed of building a m u s e u m a r o u n d a tyran-

  nosaur specimen. The story has heartbreaking twists a n d turns, betray-

  als and palace intrigues, terrible m o m e n t s of justice gone w r o n g when

  the best intentions were rewarded by calumny and i m p r i s o n m e n t . T h e n

  there are unlikely protagonists: squads of fourth-grade children from

  Hill City, South Dakota, w h o tearfully pleaded with the FBI not to take

  their beloved tyrannosaur away; McDonald's a n d Disney, w h o rushed

  in their forces to save the skeleton from the ignominious fate of becom-

  ing the personal trinket of some international financier.

  xi

  x i i TYRANNOSAURUS S U E

  As the most perfect T. rex ever found, Sue belongs to the world. But

  she also belongs to Chicago, the city that hosts the Field M u s e u m of

  Natural History, one of the oldest and grandest of America's fossil insti-

  tutions. Here Sue, at last, has found a h o m e , where she rises once m o r e

  on her gigantic legs to thrill millions of visitors each year. And Sue's

  story most emphatically belongs to Steve Fiffer, a Chicago journalist

  w h o has followed her trail from the badlands of South Dakota through

  the federal court system a n d at last into the marble halls of the Field.

  Fiffer has d o n e m o r e than any other investigator in disentangling the

  m a n y claims and counterclaims thrown out by dueling scientists and

  lawyers.

  Fiffer's success comes from being t h o r o u g h and being fair and being

  very smart. I k n o w of no other investigator w h o has been welcomed

  equally by the r o u g h - a n d - t u m b l e folks w h o dig bones in the dry wash-

  es of the West and by PhDs in lab coats w h o speak in the polysyllabic

  language of technical paleontology.

  There's a lot of Rashomon in Sue's story. Every participant remem-

  bers it from a different angle. O n e man's hero is another's villain. The

  supporters of Mr. Peter Larson, the independent fossil collector w h o

  dug Sue and m a d e her famous, see h i m as a role model for anyone w h o

  wants to explore the deep past and bring back to life the great creatures

  of the Mesozoic. To certain segments of the PhDs in tax-supported uni-

  versity m u s e u m s , Pete and his crew are Mesozoic brigands operating

  outside the tight circle of scholars trained in the Ivy League or its equiv-

  alent in California. W h e n I visit my colleagues in Japan or Mongolia or

  Russia, I find Peter Larson regarded as a leading rex scientist w h o has

  reinvigorated the study of tyrannosaurs both by his discoveries of a

  half-dozen skeletons and by his bold hypotheses about Sue's family life

  and h u n t i n g style. But when I chat with long-time friends in Nebraska

  m u s e u m s , professors of geology, the mere m e n t i o n of the Larson broth-

  ers elicits sputtering curses and the most undignified slander.

  Fiffer's account is a double story line. First, there is the chronicle of

  discovery, the ripping yarn of h o w packs of multiton Tyrannosaurus rex

  lived as top predators in the ecosystem k n o w n as the Lance Fauna, the

  last installment of Cretaceous history, and h o w this tyrant lizard king let

  its remains become e n t o m b e d within the sandbars of a
ncient rivers

  flowing sluggishly out into the h u m i d deltas of an inland sea. Buried

  F O R E W O R D x i i i

  with the tyrants' bones were a wealth of clues about what the rex

  smelled in the air and felt u n d e r their toes—there are beautiful tropical

  leaves, petrified fruit, and pollen dust that speak of a w a r m e n v i r o n m e n t

  closer to present-day Louisiana than to the parched high plains of South

  Dakota. And there are remains of the tyrants' last meal, jagged-edged

  fragments of toes and ribs bitten off the bodies of Triceratops a n d still

  within the gut cavities of the predators' skeletons. Inscribed on the rex

  bones themselves are the scars left by a predaceous lifestyle—scratches

  on the cheekbones that were inflicted d u r i n g ritualized battles with

  other rex a n d terrible w o u n d s on legs and ribcages that were products

  of life-and-death struggles with h o r n e d dinosaurs.

  The unearthing of these rex graves came in two waves. First came

  the explorers of 1900 from back East, from New York and from the

  Smithsonian, m e n w h o found the first rex and m a d e "tyrannosaur" a

  household word. Nearly a century later, in the 1990s, came the second

  wave of rex hunters, this time led by m e n and w o m e n from institutions

  in the Rocky M o u n t a i n states, some from state colleges and universities,

  some from independent m u s e u m s that grew de novo, coalescing a r o u n d

  people such as the Larson brothers a n d their coworkers in the Black

  Hills of South Dakota. These independents were not a totally new phe-

  n o m e n o n . Since the 1870s there had been Westerners—the Sternberg

  family from Kansas are the most f a m o u s — w h o m a d e their living by

  digging dinosaurs and selling the specimens to public m u s e u m s the

  world over. T h e Sternbergs braved horrible blizzards a n d scorching

  sandstorms to bring back duck-billed dinosaurs a n d tyrannosaurs to fill

  out the core displays in a dozen eastern m u s e u m s .

  W h e n I went to college in the 1960s, the Sternberg legacy was still

  honored. But the politics of paleontology shifted. In the 1970s a n d

  1980s some PhDs claimed all bones for themselves, declaring that only

  university scholars such as themselves had the right to dig skeletons a n d

  study them. According to this view, the days of the Sternbergs were over.

  Independent dino hunters were no longer welcome. Then came Sue.

  The Larson brothers' Black Hills Institute excavated the skeleton a n d

  began to clean the bones with expert care. And they dared to make their

  own conclusions about rex lifestyle and relationships. We P h D s are as

  vulnerable to the twin malady of envy and gossip as are any other seg-

  ment of society, so as Sue's fame grew, resentment spread.

  x i v TYRANNOSAURUS S U E

  A byzantine tangle of lawsuits and, eventually, criminal charges par-

  alyzed the further study of the Sue skeleton. Political opportunists

  j u m p e d on the bandwagon, posturing as protectors of the country's fos-

  sil heritage. Men and w o m e n of goodwill lined up against each other.

  Former friends broke off communication.

  W h e n the dust settled, millions of taxpayer dollars had been squan-

  dered on unnecessary court cases. And Sue was in danger of being auc-

  tioned off to any billionaire collector w h o might want to make the fos-

  sil a Cretaceous objet d'art for his foyer.

  Fiffer tells this double story with wit, clarity, a n d verve. Here's a fos-

  sil saga for everyone—for the dino aficionado w h o wants to learn

  secrets of rexian society; for the reader of adventure yarns that are

  almost too good to be true; for the citizens w h o suspect that the agents

  of big government don't always do the right thing. Dinosaur bones are

  the legacy given to o u r h u m a n species, the only life form with a brain

  big enough to understand t h e m . Dinosaur fossils are intellectual j u m p e r

  cables—nothing beats a r o o m full of dino bones to get brains of kids

  a n d adults working at full capacity. And to understand dino science, one

  has to probe the motives of dino scientists. More than any other recent

  work, Fiffer's b o o k gets inside paleontology and shows us how this most

  magical science really works.

  A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S

  Reconstructing Sue's story was a little bit like reconstructing her skele-

  ton. There were a lot of pieces that had to be put together, and the task

  was beyond the skills of any one person. Thus, I'm most grateful for the

  help of many.

  Special thanks must go to the Black Hills Institute (Peter Larson,

  Neal Larson, Terry Wentz, and Marion Zenker) a n d the Field M u s e u m

  (John McCarter, Amy Louis, John Flynn, Bill Simpson, a n d Nancy

  O'Shea). Sue Hendrickson, Bob Bakker, Phil Currie, and Ken Carpenter

  also provided essential material and guidance.

  Many others with intimate knowledge of various aspects of the

  story graciously shared their thoughts with me, including Ed Able,

  James Abruzzo, Bob Chicoinne, the late Gary Colbath, Peter Crane, Jack

  Daly, Patrick Duffy, Steve Emery, Henry Galiano, Richard Gray, Robert

  Hunt, Louis Jacobson, Bob Lamb, Robert Mandel, Amy Murray, Cathy

  Nemeth, David Redden, Keith Rigby, Dale Russell, Vincent Santucci,

  Kevin Schieffer, Maurice Williams, Michael W o o d b u r n e , a n d David

  Zuercher.

  Several wonderful books were also extremely helpful in under-

  standing the science of dinosaurs and the history of dinosaur hunting.

  As is obvious from the references in the text, I relied heavily on the fol-

  lowing: The Complete T. Rex by John R. H o r n e r and D o n Lessem

  (Simon and Schuster, 1993); The Rex Files by Peter Larson (self-pub-

  lished); The Dinosaur Hunters by Robert Plate (McKay, 1964); Dinosaur

  x v i TYRANNOSAURUS S U E

  Hunters by David A. E. Spalding (Prima Publishing, 1993); The Life of a

  Fossil Hunter by Charles H. Sternberg (Indiana University Press, 1990;

  originally published by Holt, 1909); and The Riddle of the Dinosaur by

  John Noble Wilford (Knopf, 1985). "Jurassic Farce," a South Dakota Law

  Review article by Patrick Duffy and Lois Lofgren, was also a valuable

  resource. Other books consulted included The Bonehunters' Revenge by

  David Rains Wallace ( H o u g h t o n Mifflin, 1999) and Night Comes to the

  Cretaceous by James Lawrence Powell (W. H. Freeman a n d Company,

  1998). I have attempted to give credit in each instance in which I have

  directly quoted or used information from these texts. I apologize to the

  authors if I have failed to do so at any point in the book.

  Newspaper articles also assisted me in reconstructing some events.

  Thanks to all the South Dakota publications that did such a fine job of

  covering this story, with special kudos to the Rapid City Journal and its

  writers Bill Harlan a n d Hugh O'Gara. T h e Journal provided outstand-

  ing coverage of this story from day one. Thanks, too, to G e m m a Lock-

  hart for her lovely commentary.

  I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge others w h o assisted:

  Richard Babcock, Ira Block, Diana Blume,
Casey Carmody, Julia DeRosa,

  Georgia Lee Hadler, Karen Hendrickson, Penelope Hull, Maureen

  McNair, Stan Sacrison, Steven Sacrison, Minnie Tai, Jeff Theis, Judy

  T h o m p s o n , Sheldon Zenner, McDonald's, Walt Disney World Resort,

  Burson-Marsteller, Sotheby's, the staffs at Chicago Magazine and Chicago

  Tribune Magazine, and, as usual, my wonderfully supportive family—

  Sharon, Kate, Nora, and Rob Fiffer.

  Penultimate thanks to my literary agent, Gail H o c h m a n , and, at

  W. H. Freeman and Company, to Peter McGuigan and Sloane Lederer,

  w h o from the beginning saw the possibilities for this book, and to my

  editor, Erika G o l d m a n , w h o provided invaluable support and counsel

  t h r o u g h o u t the writing process.

  And finally, thanks to Sue, herself, whose story and presence will, I

  hope, inspire a new generation of scientists and writers.

  TYRANNOSAURUS SUE

  P R O L O G U E

  After she was gone, after that dark, shocking day in May of 1992, when

  the armed FBI agents and Sheriff's officers and National Guardsmen had

  come and taken her away and locked her in a machine shop, he didn't

  forget her. When he wasn't talking to his lawyers about how to get her

  back or to the U.S. attorney w h o had ordered her seizure or to the media

  or to the leaders of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe w h o also claimed her,

  when he wasn't talking to the technicians at NASA who'd been waiting

  for her or to the outraged scientists w h o couldn't believe she was gone,

  he'd climb into his 1981 Datsun pickup a n d drive the 30 miles from Hill

  City to Rapid City for a secret rendezvous.

  Down Main Street and o n t o Highway 16, t h r o u g h the Black Hills

  past the turnoff for M o u n t Rushmore, past the entrance to Bear C o u n -

  try, the Reptile Gardens, the water slides, the miniature golf courses, and

  all the other attractions for the s u m m e r tourists, until he reached a

  brick building at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.

  The building, part of the school's physical plant, housed boilers and

  other heating systems, as well as the 40-foot metal storage container in

  which she was being held. He could catch a glimpse of the container

  through an outside window. "I'd just stand there and talk to her," Peter