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PALEONTOLOGY ARTICLE

Study of Sue reveals extensive injuries
by MIKE BALDWIN

10.17.01: Sue, the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex yet found, was tough enough to survive extensive injuries during its lifetime, say palaeontologists who have completed the first detailed postmortem of the whole skeleton. However, the cause of Sue's death remains a mystery. The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago bought Sue for $8 million in 1997, but palaeontologists had to remove the bones from the surrounding rock before they could be properly studied. Elizabeth Rega, now at the Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, California and Chris Brochu of the University of Iowa conducted the post mortem. They say the 13 meter-long, six-ton dinosaur had been a tough customer.

Rega and Brochu found evidence of numerous injuries that had healed before the giant carnivore died. Fractures of the right and left ribs indicate Sue recovered from two traumatic blows to the body. Studies of arm and leg bones showed they had healed from infections. Both sides of the jaw also showed lesions common in other large tyrannosaurs. And bony growths on vertebrae indicated back problems.

Social Behavior

Yet the dinosaur may have reached old age, says Rega. "The maturity of the specimen and the clear evidence of healing indicate that Sue was a robust individual who survived many insults," she says.

Rega and Brochu concluded that infections accounted for holes in the jaw - rather than bites by other dinosaurs, as had been suggested. The spacing of the holes did not match the teeth of potential suspects, they say. In fact, careful examination of the skeleton found no evidence of what finally killed the dinosaur.

Peter Larson of the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research in Hill City, South Dakota, whose group originally found the skeleton in 1990, thinks the evidence of extensive injury suggests that Sue could not have survived without "complex social behaviour such as spousal care."

The scientists presented their research at the annual conference of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in Montana.

The information is via Jeff Hecht article on http://geology.about.com