After 66 million years, a T. rex makes its grand debut
For five years, The Washington Post’s Lee Powell has documented the journey of a nearly complete T. rex skeleton - from the remote reaches of Montana to small-town Canada to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. The roughly 66-million-year-old dinosaur was discovered during a hike in 1988 by Kathy Wankel, who was with her family in eastern Montana. “I think I found a megafind,” Wankel says. The T. rex ended up on display, in a lying-down pose, at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Mont. Eventually, the fossils were taken off display in preparation for a cross-country trip and a bigger stage. The journey of the T. rex included a stop in Trenton, Ontario, where a company built the steel mount that will display the bones for Smithsonian visitors to see. Because the skeleton was found on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers land, it belongs to the American people. The dinosaur is the centerpiece of the Smithsonian’s renovated fossil hall, which is more than a hundred years old. It sees some 5 to 7 million visitors a year, making the hall one of the most visited spaces of its kind in the world. This is the story of how the "the nation's T. rex” came to Washington. Subscribe to The Washington Post on KZread: wapo.st/2QOdcqK
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Пікірлер: 76
The way those mounts are built, perfectly hugging the contours of the bones, it's a thing of beauty.
@Chevdriver
3 жыл бұрын
Yes beautiful metal work
@davidletasi3322
2 жыл бұрын
It's a scientific art form!
imagine how awkward it would've been if the fedex employees just chucked the fossil casts into the gate of the museum like they do to most other parcels
I was driving across the country on a camping trip--from Vermont to Wyoming and back--in the summer of 1990 when I came across this very T-Rex being dug up just outside Jordan, MT. I found out about it from a newspaper I saw at a gas station/convenience store I stopped at 50 miles west of Jordan. After a few moments of deliberating, I drove the 50 miles back to Jordan and asked a guy at a local bar (the Ranchers Bar--they were even selling T-shirts (I still have the one I bought) showing a cowboy lassoing a T-Rex with the tag line "Catch alot [sic] of Big Fun at the Ranchers Bar") where the dig was. He said it wasn't there--he told me that the papers published the location as Jordan to keep people from where it really was. Anyway, he then explained to me how to find the dig. This involved another 30-45 minutes of driving on dirt and gravel roads out in the middle of nowhere. I was about to turn around when I saw a small van parked way off in the distance near the Ft. Peck Reservoir. When I drove up to the van, parked and got out of my car, the van door slid open and inside was a camera crew from NOVA. I asked them about the T-Rex and that I wanted to go see it. They said it was getting late (5 o'clock or so) and the scientists were probably calling it a day, but that they would be up the next morning at dawn. They said my best bet would be to camp there overnight and then go look the next morning. They showed me a dirt path to the excavation site and said it was about two miles away. They then left and I pitched my pup tent. After some dinner and gazing at the stars, I got into my sleeping bag and went to sleep. Overnight, I awoke to something sniffing at my head on the other side of the tent, and at some point I decided to get in my car where it would be safer (!). The next morning I awoke, ate some breakfast, put on my running shoes and ran to the site. There it was, the T-Rex and the scientists--the same ones in the pictures from 2:37 to 2:51. I asked the scientists if it would be okay if I took pictures, and they said yes. They asked me how I found them and I told them the story. They smiled and then asked me just not to tell any of my friends about the location. I told them with a laugh that I was from Vermont and there would very little danger of them looking for the site. After hanging out at the dig for a while, I heard that one of the scientists was going to go walk to another dig where they had found a Triceratops. I asked her if I could go with her. She said sure, but that during the day it would get well over 100 degrees F, and that if I wanted to walk back to the T-Rex site by myself, there was always the danger of getting lost. After another few moments of deliberating, I decided against that. I took one last look at the T-Rex, thanked the scientists and drive back to town. It was a wonderfully memorable event from a wonderfully memorable trip. And just because I stopped at that gas station 50 past where the T-Rex was. Serendipity smiled on me that day! 🙂
Imagine if those exact individuals of dinosaurs actually met each other in life and the T. rex actually bit at its frill
@-_deploy_-
3 жыл бұрын
IMAGINE
32 years old and holding back tears. I feel like a kid again watching this
@Jarod-vg9wq
3 ай бұрын
Dinosaurs make all of us kids agin 😂😊❤
The one thing I don't get is why the skull on the Smithsonian mount is so different from the original Wankel T. rex, or MOR 555. It's noticeable in this video. The first time we see the mount at the Smithsonian in this video, it's got the original skull. The final reveal, it's very different. It's so easy to see in the head width and dentition, especially on the front of the mandible. The temporal fenestra and orbits look very different as well. I wish there was a detailed breakdown of the process behind this and the reason why this Smithsonian display differs so greatly.
Kathy Wankel you are my new hero...you deserve the Medal of Honor. She found the justly named "Nation's T Rex" (and I'm Canadian) and I hope she was given a free apartment in DC where she can visit it ANY TIME SHE WANTS.
@melodiefrances3898
2 жыл бұрын
Thank God she had an idea of what she found.
Man that would be one of the coolest jobs out there. To put together such history, then to stand back and think, yeah, I was part of that.
Interesting work; peeling back the layers of time to reveal these amazing finds.
How do they form the metal around the fossil so perfectly without damaging the fossil!?
i remember going to the museum of the rockies in 2002 and i thought it was great.
Good heavens what a great video! Good work!
Everybody knows Trex is the king👑, not Giganotosaurus❌, not Spinosaurus❌
wow got to go and see these dino's soon, great video on building the frame works and all
I remember that fossil before!
so exciting! I wish I could see it in the Smithsonian. what a great video!🎉
the real t rex scotty
@scottythetrex5197
4 жыл бұрын
I agree.
They should include the T-Rex's belly bones.
11:48. A dog and his bone.
How much of the Rex specimen was found?
Still waiting for a set dumbbells, and they were able to get up to Canada 🇨🇦
Congrats to those who found and dug up this wonderful specimen.
@maspesasmasperras5554
Жыл бұрын
Thanks!
2:46 If I found that saw that front of me I would be squealing with joy 🤩❤
a T-Rex being delivered by FedEx i hope they dont shake the box or kick it
Thank you Wankel family!!
I can't believe they trusted FedEx to transport that!
These people are so dedicated to doing it right so that’s the fossil is shown as it was in the live animal.
wow jack Horner found a t-rex skeleton at Montana along time ago.
the real t r ex zoraida amor si jurassic park
si
I’m confused. The lady said they were camping in Montana but everywhere else said it was discovered in Saskatchewan. Anyone know why that is?
@davidletasi3322
2 жыл бұрын
Wankles T rex was collected in Montana under the guidance of Jack Horners Museum of the Rockies team in 1990. The Canadian specimens are related to other well know specimens. There are several web sites describing these specimens.
imagine if the one who killed him was a triceratops, and now that he's dead, he's paying back
Finally my tax dollars used for something worthwhile
They positioned it in the worst way
Brought to you by FedEx
I would like to handle real fossils, but if I could make casts for the exhibits, sign me up
Attendance is gonna sky rocket, you know when the virus crisis is over.
Smithsonian you need to use the Disney technology about holograms to superimpose the animal over he boes. Give a show four time an hour. We can do this.
The arrogance of the people to say that they own an extinct animal is staggering. It’s cool no doubt but to label it the nations trex is kind of ridiculous.
@martinfernandez882
5 жыл бұрын
T. rex was a proud patriot when it was alive.
@stemmenfratarnet
5 жыл бұрын
Martin Fernandez so I hear. 😂
@jasonvoorhees5180
4 жыл бұрын
Not like the Tyrannosaur is going to protest lol
@idaho7370
3 жыл бұрын
Better than it been sold to a millionaire for their private collection and nobody gets to see it.
@AlexSciChannel
3 жыл бұрын
Nobody owns the T rex except for the people as it is a specimen of science with numerous papers published on it. People who actually own dinosaurs are rich millionares and billionaires who often aquire them illegally or at auctions and never get into the hands of science.
Dinos died in the flood....they are not millions of years old.
@nobby5492
4 жыл бұрын
Kenneth Treasures sure you know more than scientists that studied there entire life.
@kennethtreasures3548
4 жыл бұрын
@@nobby5492 I'm one of those scientists that have study that all of my life
@nobby5492
4 жыл бұрын
The Bible is not a scientific book is a religious one. There is no proof that a giant flood has ever happened
@kennethtreasures3548
4 жыл бұрын
@@nobby5492 right.... all the plants animals Birds fish just decided to jump into a sediment deposited by water displacement all across the realm all at the same time....they have you fooled hook line and sinker
@nerevarlambo
4 жыл бұрын
@@nobby5492 there is plenty of scientific proof of the flood.
Its a fact that the earth is only about six thousand years old 66 mil please stop lying.
@hitlerswetpussy1736
4 жыл бұрын
Ray Red wine please tell me you’re a troll and this is satire
@rayredwine4808
4 жыл бұрын
@@jamessmilus321 Did he have a great //////////uncle back then that told the story come on man where do they get these dates from.
@laughinglaughing1416
3 жыл бұрын
@@rayredwine4808 dense brain lmao
@thatdarnmandalorian5402
3 жыл бұрын
@@rayredwine4808 No, but rocks from that time tell us the fossil is 66 million years old.
@rairrua
3 жыл бұрын
Is this a joke? If earth was only 6,000 years old no living thing would exist
This long video and u show the sculpture for 2 seconds. Why do people not know how to do anything right.