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Here comes Sue
By Burl Burlingame
Star-BulletinThat dinosaur named "Sue" is also known as Tyrannosaurus rex, "tyrant lizard king," and the big-and-hungry species is possibly the best-known dinosaur. But if paleontologists have their way, good ol' T. rex will soon be known as -- get this -- Manospondylus gigas.
Say it slowly. Mah-no-SPOND-ee-lus GI-goss. Latin for "giant thin vertabra."
Might happen. Last month the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research began excavating a skeleton that just might be the rest of a dinosaur discovered by pioneer paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope in 1892. Cope named his baby M. gigas.
Another, relatively intact, fossil specimen was discovered four years later in Montana by Barnum Brown, and grandly dubbed Tyrannosaurus rex by paleontologist Henry Osborn.
As T. rex, the land shark on stilts captured the world's imagination. But if it turns out that the new excavation is both the same species and the same animal discovered by Cope, his name has right-of-way in the paleontologists' playbook.
Scientists admit, however, that no amount of arm-twisting will get the world to drop the way-so-cool "tyrant lizard king" for the way-so-dull "giant thin vertabra."
By the way, did we mention that "Sue" -- actually an exact facsimile of the most intact T. rex skeleton ever discovered -- visits Honolulu this weekend through Oct. 15 at Bishop Museum?
Saturday and Sunday is "McDonald's Weekend" at the museum; show a McExtra card to get a family of four in for free. McDonalds is one of the sponsors, as well primary underwriter for Sue's home in the Field Museum in Chicago.
Other sponsors include Meadow Gold Dairies, Hawaiian Electric, Hawaiian Tel, CSX Lines, Foodland and Coca-Cola.
Admission to the museum, open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., is $14.95; $11.95 for kids and seniors; $7.95 and $6.95 for kamaaina and military; free for members. Call 847-3511.
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