Steve Fiffer

In 1990, Sue Hendrickson and the Black Hills Institute made an amazing discovery. A Tyrannosaurs Rex fossil. Not just any T. Rex fossil, but the largest, most well-preserved and the most complete example of one ever found, which is still true today in 26 years later. It's a holy grail for paleontologists, so much could be learned from such an amazing specimen.

And then the United States government ruined it. Just as the Black Hills Institute was performing the delicate process of preserving show more her, and FBI sting confiscated her, ripped her from the controlled environment of a science lab and dumped her in a machine shop, where she went from scientific marvel to a pile of "police evidence."

What follows is a sad example of capitalism gone wrong, where Sue could have been lost forever as a result of petty human greed. Several people claimed ownership of Sue, hoping to make a huge profit off her sale, and had things gone differently so much of what we know about Tyrannosaurus Rexes would have been wiped away indefinitely.

Reading this was somewhat stressful and infuriating, not because of the writing but what I can only describe as outright injustice. Admittedly, the author seems a little bit biased in favor of the scientists, but regardless of who you believe should have gotten the fossil, the ones who really suffered are all the people who didn't get to see Sue while she was locked away. I won't say what happened for those who don't know already, but it was nearly a decade after he discovery that she finally saw the light of day.

Recommended if you don't mind reading recounts of lengthy court proceedings. show less

I really loved this book! It's hard to classify - definitely not a novel, nor is it non-fiction. You can tell it's part memoir, and part fiction, a collection of stories, each of which stays with the reader a long, longtime, grouped around the theme of the different rooms of a home...specific rooms, eloquently, wittily, lovingly described. I think it is a display of excellent writing by excellent contemporary writers -- and it's a real treasure. Icing on the cake: some of the proceeds of the show more book go to help the homeless. show less

The amazing true story of the most famous fossil in the world, a T-Rex named Sue. Sue's discovery seemed like a lucky break, but these ancient bones would all but curse the career of those who painstakingly dug her up.

More then that, they would become the focal point of a massive dispute between the U.S. government, Sioux tribal law, and the commercial collection team that excavated the original find. Just who truly owns Sue? And perhaps more importantly, who will wind up with her in the end?

An entertaining tale about Sue and her history. This book delves into the paleontology's origins and more distant past as well as the specific struggles regarding Sue. This context was entertaining and enlightening.

Keeping all the players and the timing for this story straight was a bit difficult and I think it could have used a timeline and a "cast of characters" to help keep things straightforward. Another improvement would be to have waited until Sue was actually on display in the Field show more museum to publish the book - I was shocked to get to the end of the book and realize it was speaking in future tense about Sue's unveiling. Given that it was only supposed to be a few months away, what was the rush? (I imagine the author and/or publisher wanted the book out in time to be bought during the publicity surrounding her unveiling, or perhaps this was even published in conjunction with it, but either way - it felt off to me.)

Altogether, though, this is an enjoyable book about an interesting subject. show less