Fantastic fossils, feds and the FBI

AN unusual documentary film was shown recently in Dublin. Dinosaur 13 depicts an extraordinary series of events which began in 1990.

In August of that year, some fossil hunters were prospecting in the ‘badlands’ of South Dakota when a tyre on their jeep went flat. They headed for town to sort out the problem but one member, Sue Hendrickson, stayed behind in the arid wilderness. Exploring on her own, she came on fossil bones protruding from a cliff face, which team leader Peter Larson, on the jeep’s return, identified as those of a tyrannosaurus.

The specimen, nicknamed ‘Sue’ in honour of its finder, would prove to be one to the most important and controversial dinosaur finds ever made.