A T. Rex named Sue

One of the largest attractions in Alaska is creating quite a commotion at the Anchorage Museum of History and Art.

Sue, the world's largest, most complete Tyrannosaurus rex, debuted at the museum earlier this fall, and since then, crowds have flocked to the museum to get a glimpse of the giant skeleton.

While she is housed in Anchorage, Sue is an exhibit for all Alaska, as many classrooms from around Southcentral Alaska, including the Valley, have scheduled visits. Many more individuals have come from miles away to see the exhibit.

Sue is named after Sue Hendrickson, a fossil hunter who found the preserved skeleton on Aug. 12, 1990 on the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation, near Faith, S.D. She is permanently housed at The Field Museum in Chicago, but travels around the country for three-month exhibits at museums such as the Anchorage Museum of History and Art.

While Sue is the world's largest dinosaur fossil, she is also the most controversial. Soon after she was discovered, a major debate ensued over who actually owned the bones. The bones were found on land that was part of a Sioux Indian reservation, but the land belonged to a private rancher. The rancher was part Sioux, and his land was being held in trust by the U.S. government.

After years of wrangling, a judge ruled that Sue would be held in trust for the rancher, who in turn agreed to sell the fossils at a public auction.

On Oct. 4, 1997, Sue was sold at Sotheby's auction house for $8.4 million, the most ever paid for fossils, to The Field House, through partnerships with the McDonald's Corporation, the Walt Disney World Resort and private individuals.

Standing 42-feet long and 13-feet tall, Sue is imposing. Her teeth are nearly a foot long each. Her skull alone weighs 600 pounds and is five feet long. Scientists think she may have weighed more than seven tons when she was alive 67 million years ago. She is more than 90 percent complete, which makes her the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex fossil ever discovered.

Once you get past the enormity of Sue, the museum has even more to offer. There are numerous interactive displays that relate to dinosaurs, including many that are kid-friendly.

A secondary exhibit that compliments the main Sue attraction has a very Valley flavor. "Meet the Dinosaurs of Alaska" is an exhibit that brings the surreal world of dinosaurs home.

More than 1,000 dinosaur bone fragments have been found in Alaska, mostly near the Arctic. But two major discoveries took place in the Talkeetna Mountains during the early 1990s, and their finds are detailed at the museum as part of the display.

A portion of a skull of an armored dinosaur was identified there, as well as the partial skeleton of a small hadrosaur, which was named "Lizzie."

According to the Anchorage Museum of History and Art, both dinosaurs were preserved in mudstones containing shellfish, which meant their bodies had been buried in an ancient sea floor.

The two dinosaur exhibits will be at the Anchorage Museum of History and Art through Jan. 18. Cost is $3, plus museum admission.