Stan (dinosaur)

For other uses, see Stan (disambiguation).

"Stan", also known by its inventory number BHI 3033, is a Tyrannosaurus rex fossil found in the Hell Creek Formation in South Dakota, just outside of Buffalo in 1987, and excavated in 1992.^[1] It is the fifth most complete T. rex fossil discovered to date, at more than 70% bulk.^[2][3] In October 2020, the fossil was sold for $31.8 million at auction, making it the most expensive dinosaur specimen and fossil ever sold. In March 2022 Abu Dhabi's Department of Culture and Tourism stated that they had acquired Stan and were planning on displaying the fossil at a new museum of natural history scheduled to open in 2025.^[4]

A cast of Stan the T. rex at the Manchester Museum.

Discovery

Stan Sacrison, an amateur paleontologist, was responsible for the initial discovery of Stan's bone fragments, and as a result is the namesake for the T. rex. He was out looking at plant life in South Dakota when he spotted Stan's pelvis visible in the side of a cliff.^[3] At the time, Sacrison was doing freelance work for the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research.^[5] Originally, it was thought that the fossil was that of a Triceratops.^[6]

The excavation itself required the skills and resources of the Black Hills Institute; it officially began on 11 July 1992, led by Peter Larson (the lead paleontologist on the excavations of many other T. rex specimens like Sue and Trix as well as the institute's president).^[3][5] The institute's team removed the rock above Stan's skeleton with a Bobcat and finer removal was done manually with picks and brushes until the fossils could be plotted and diagrammed with the help of a grid placed over the dig site. The bones were then wrapped in burlap and plaster and brought to the Black Hills Institute.^[1]

Description

 

"Sue", AMNH 5027, "Stan", and "Jane", to scale with a human

The most notable aspect of Stan is his nearly complete and perfectly preserved skull. It is widely regarded as the best T. rex skull ever discovered.^[3] Although the bones were separated from each other before excavation, they were in pristine condition and ideal for study by researchers.^[1] According to Pete Larson of the Black Hills Institute, Stan's skull has enabled scientists to learn more about the T. rex's cranial kinesis, or movement of the skull bones, than any other T. rex specimen.^[7] Because of Stan's narrow pelvis, some paleontologists interpret the specimen as being male, though this method of determining sex in T. rex is controversial.^[1] Stan is approximately 11.78 m (38.6 ft) in length as measured by the Hutchinson et al. 2011,^[8] 12 feet (3.64 m) tall at the hip, and is estimated to be around 66 million years old.^[9][2] Body mass estimates for this specimen include 7.6 tonnes from Bates et al. in 2009,^[10] 5.9 to 10.8 tonnes in Hutchinson et al. 2011,^[8] and 7.2 tonnes in Sellers et al. 2017.^[11]

Preparation

 

Photo of the original Stan Fossil (on the right) was taken at Black Hills Institute of Geological Research, Inc. from Hill City, South Dakota.

The bones of Stan the T. rex were cleaned and prepared at the Black Hills Institute where resident paleontologists and paleobotanists continued to study him and the fossilized plants he was discovered with. The institute has performed two additional excavations of the site that Stan was discovered, yielding 199 of the 350 known bones of the T. rex, more than 70% in bulk, which made Stan the second most complete T. rex until 2017.^[1]

Since then, additional excavations for other known T. rex specimens, as well as new discoveries regarding the T. rex "Scotty" (RSM P2523.8) in 2019, have made Stan the fifth most complete T. rex.^[12] However, BHI 3033 is still one of the most famous T. rex discoveries, and more than sixty casts of the skeleton are on display and requested by museums all around the world.^[9][7]

Life and death

Stan's fossils show notable signs of wear and indication that the dinosaur experienced multiple attacks and illnesses throughout his life. Puncture wounds on the back of his skull and rib indicate that he was at one point bitten by another T. rex.^[2] Other bite marks at the base of his skull suggest his neck was once broken and caused the fusion of two vertebrate, resulting in a loss of mobility and pain for the rest of his life. The injury spurred the growth of excess bone around his neck, showing a remarkable recovery. Other irregularities in Stan's skull include non-symmetrical holes on either side of his jaw with smoothed edges, which are indications that these are more healed wounds.^[1][3]

According to the Black Hills Institute, Stan likely lived in a family unit of other T. rex. His mate could have been the cause of some of his injuries.^[3] Stan likely ate hadrosaurids, also known as duck-billed dinosaurs, such as Edmontosaurus.^[9][3] It is unknown what exactly caused Stan's death, but many theories suggest that it could have been the result of old age, starvation due to limited mobility from his injuries, or even parasitic infections that many T. rex exhibit signs of.^[13]

In 2005, the BBC program The Truth About Killer Dinosaurs used Stan's skull as a model for their hydraulic test of the T. rex's bite force and estimated that it exceeded 6.8 tonnes. Additional tests, like those published by Karl T. Bates and colleagues in 2009, used Stan's remains to study the weight distribution of T.rex, as well as how their mass and proportions would have affected their movement. Bates et al. estimated that Stan was larger than previous belief, at around 16,875 pounds (7.6 tonnes); they also concluded that Stan, as well as other Tyrannosaurus rex specimens, were much more robust than commonly believed.^[14]

Exhibition

 

A cast of Stan at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History.

It took more than 30,000 hours for the Black Hills Institute to prepare the fossil for display; he was the centerpiece for the opening of the T. rex World Exhibition and toured around Japan before coming to reside in the Black Hills Institute's Hall of Dinosaurs.^[3][7] Stan is the most duplicated T. rex fossil, and as a result, more people have seen Stan (and casts of Stan) than any other Tyrannosaurus.^[15][7]

The New Mexico Museum of Natural History is home to a cast of BHI 3033. The museum purchased the cast in 2008, and it remains a center piece of the museum, which is home to numerous other dinosaur fossils, notable T. rex skulls, and skull fragments.^[9] Another cast resides at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, which is also home to a cast of Sue.^[3]

Other casts are displayed at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, the National Museum of Natural History (Washington, D.C.), the National Museum of Natural Science (Tokyo), the Sternberg Museum of Natural History (Fort Hays, Kansas), the Museum of Natural Sciences (Brussels, Belgium), the Wyoming Dinosaur Center (Thermopolis, Wyoming), the Manchester Museum (Manchester, UK), the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano (Milan, Italy), the Children's Museum of Indianapolis, Indiana, the Dinosaur Discovery Museum (Kenosha, WI), the Weis Earth Science Museum (Menasha, WI), The Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point (Lehi, UT) and the Natural History Museum at the University of Oslo. While it has been reported that the Googleplex T. rex replica in Mountain View, California, United States is a replica of BHI-3033,^[16] it is actually a cast of MOR-555.^[17][15][18]

The auction house Christie's sold Stan in New York, as part of its 20th Century Evening Sale, on October 6, 2020.^[19][20] Stan sold for $31.8 million to an anonymous buyer making it the most expensive fossil ever sold.^[21] During a Manningcast broadcast of a National Football League playoff game on January 17, 2022, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was interviewed by Peyton and Eli Manning while at his home. Eli noted a T. rex skull in the background of Johnson's camera view; Johnson explained that the T. rex was named Stan, how it received its name, and how it was discovered. This led some to believe that Johnson was the anonymous buyer of Stan.^[22] However, Johnson and the Black Hills Institute confirmed that he owns a replica skull and not the real specimen.^[23][24] On March 23, 2022, it was announced that Stan is to be the centerpiece of the under construction Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi. ^[25]

Intellectual property

Stan's skeleton, including original and restored elements, is a registered copyright of Black Hills Institute of Geological Research with the registration number of VA0001745359.^[26] This copyright was defended in 2010 when it was noticed that casts of Peck's Rex contained unmodified cast replicas of elements of both Sue and Stan.^[27]

Reportedly, Stan's skeleton has lived on and much of it has been copied as part of a Tyranosaurus named Shen. The latter skeleton was scheduled to be auctioned off in Asia at Christie's on November 30, 2022. Given the fact that much of the skeleton is Stan replication, Shen has been withdrawn, and will likely wind up in a museum.^[28]

See also

•  Dinosaurs portal

• Big John (dinosaur)
• Black Beauty (dinosaur)
• Dippy
• Jane (dinosaur)
• Peck's Rex
• Specimens of Tyrannosaurus
• Sue (dinosaur)
• Timeline of tyrannosaur research
• Titus (dinosaur)
• Trix (dinosaur)
• List of dinosaur specimens sold at auction

References

1. nandi (2 January 2018). "Stan the Tyrannosaurus rex". Paleontology World. Retrieved 4 April 2019.
2. "All About Stan | New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science". www.nmnaturalhistory.org. Retrieved 4 April 2019.
3. "BHI/Fossils & Minerals/Dinosaurs and Birds/STAN T. rex". bhigr.com. Retrieved 4 April 2019.
4. Gamillo, Elizabeth (25 March 2022). "Stan the T. Rex Will Be the Star of a New Museum in Abu Dhabi". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 27 July 2022.
5. Browne, Malcolm W. (27 July 1993). "Dinosaur Institute Keeps Digging". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 4 April 2019.
6. arms, I. Know Dino: The Big Dinosaur Podcast | A. site about dinosaurs | This Week in Dinosaur News: A. possible explanation for alvarezsaurids’ tiny; Sauropodomorph, A. New; Says, More (26 September 2018). "I Know Dino Podcast Show Notes: T. rex revisited (Epi Big balllssode 200)". I Know Dino: The Big Dinosaur Podcast. Retrieved 4 April 2019.
7. Brave Wilderness (14 September 2018), The Most Famous Dinosaur Tooth!, archived from the original on 21 December 2021, retrieved 4 April 2019
8. Hutchinson, John R.; Bates, Karl T.; Molnar, Julia; Allen, Vivian; Makovicky, Peter J. (12 October 2011). "A Computational Analysis of Limb and Body Dimensions in Tyrannosaurus rex with Implications for Locomotion, Ontogeny, and Growth". PLOS ONE. 6 (10): e26037. Bibcode:2011PLoSO...626037H. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0026037. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 3192160. PMID 22022500.
9. "Rare T. rex footprints in New Mexico help round out picture of prehis…". archive.is. 11 September 2012. Archived from the original on 11 September 2012. Retrieved 4 April 2019.
10. Bates, Karl T.; Manning, Phillip L.; Hodgetts, David; Sellers, William I. (19 February 2009). "Estimating Mass Properties of Dinosaurs Using Laser Imaging and 3D Computer Modelling". PLOS ONE. 4 (2): e4532. Bibcode:2009PLoSO...4.4532B. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0004532. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 2639725. PMID 19225569.
11. Sellers, William I.; Pond, Stuart B.; Brassey, Charlotte A.; Manning, Philip L.; Bates, Karl T. (2017). "Investigating the running abilities of Tyrannosaurus rex using stress-constrained multibody dynamic analysis". PeerJ. 5: e3420. doi:10.7717/peerj.3420. PMC 5518979. PMID 28740745.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
12. "Paleontologists report world's biggest Tyrannosaurus rex: Nicknamed 'Scotty,' the record-breaking rex is also the largest dinosaur skeleton ever found in Canada". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 4 April 2019.
13. Wolff, Ewan D. S.; Salisbury, Steven W.; Horner, John R.; Varricchio, David J. (30 September 2009). "Common Avian Infection Plagued the Tyrant Dinosaurs". PLOS ONE. 4 (9): e7288. Bibcode:2009PLoSO...4.7288W. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0007288. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 2748709. PMID 19789646.
14. Sellers, William I.; Hodgetts, David; Manning, Phillip L.; Bates, Karl T. (19 February 2009). "Estimating Mass Properties of Dinosaurs Using Laser Imaging and 3D Computer Modelling". PLOS ONE. 4 (2): e4532. Bibcode:2009PLoSO...4.4532B. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0004532. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 2639725. PMID 19225569.
15. "The Stan Gallery". EXTINCT MONSTERS. 2 February 2014. Retrieved 4 April 2019.
16. "On Google campus, a dinosaur is forever in battle with hordes of flamingos". Boing Boing. 25 July 2014. Retrieved 4 April 2019.
17. Harlan, Bill (15 November 2019). "South Dakota T. rex draws media attention". Rapid City Journal. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
18. "Morian Hall of Paleontology". www.hmns.org. Houston Museum Of Natural Science. Retrieved 4 April 2019.
19. Small, Zachary (17 September 2020). "A T. Rex Skeleton Arrives in Rockefeller Center Ahead of Auction". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 18 September 2020.
20. "One of largest known T. rex skeletons up for auction at Christie's". NBC News. Retrieved 18 September 2020.
21. Small, Zachary (7 October 2020). "Seen Jurassic Park? T-Rex Skeleton Brings $31.8 Million at Christie's". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 October 2020.
22. Gaydos, Ryan (17 January 2022). "The Rock's T-Rex skull on 'ManningCast' raises questions over whether it's real historic fossil". Fox News. Retrieved 18 January 2022.
23. Geggel, Laura (18 January 2022). "Did The Rock buy Stan, the most expensive Tyrannosaurus rex on record?". Live Science. Retrieved 18 January 2022.
24. Johnson, Dwayne (18 January 2022). "Untitled post". Instagram. Retrieved 18 January 2022.
25. . National Geographic. 23 March 2022. Archived from the original on 23 March 2022.
26. "Copyright Catalog (1978 to Present)". United States Copyright Office. Department of Interior. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
27. Penzenstadler, Nick (26 November 2010). "T-Rex center of $8.2M area copyright lawsuit". Rapid City Journal. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
28. Dafoe, Taylor. "Christie's Pulled a $25 Million T-Rex Skeleton From Auction After Experts Pointed Out That Most of Its Bones Are Replicas". Auctions. Artnet.com. Retrieved 23 November 2022. The skeleton was set to become the first of its kind ever offered at auction in Asia.