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The Field Museum’s Sue is no longer the most expensive fossil, T. rex or otherwise, ever sold at auction. That honor, after eye-popping bidding Tuesday night at Christie’s in New York, belongs to Stan, a T. rex specimen with roots similar to Sue’s.

But Sue fans needn’t worry. “Sue is still bigger and more complete,” says Jingmai O’Connor, the Chicago museum’s new dinosaur curator. “In paleontology, that’s what really matters.” Both are among the very finest of the 50 or so significant T. rex finds, but in a quick comparison, how do the two specimens stack up?

Auction results

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Sue: $8.36 million, October, 1997, Sotheby’s ($13.5 million in 2020 money)

Stan: $31.8 million, October, 2020, Christie’s

Purchaser

Geologist Bill Simpson, Fossil Collections Manager, carefully feather-dusts “Sue,” the 67-million-year-old dinosaur in Stanley Hall at the Field Museum. Her more than 200-bone skeleton is cleaned twice yearly.

Sue: Field Museum, Chicago, with help from McDonald’s and Walt Disney World

Stan: Unknown as of mid-day Wednesday, raising fears that it will move out of public view

Place of residence

Sue: Field Museum, Stanley Field Hall (May, 2000 – Feb., 2018), “Evolving Planet” exhibition (Dec. 2018 – present)

Stan: Black Hills Institute of Geological Research, Hill City, SD, 1996-2019

Main claim to fame

Stan, one of the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex fossil discovered, is on display, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2020, at Christie's in New York.
Stan, one of the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex fossil discovered, is on display, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2020, at Christie’s in New York.

Sue: Long heralded as the largest and most complete T. rex skeleton found, 40.5 feet long and 13 feet high at the hip, more than 90 percent complete by volume

Stan: Most complete and undistorted T. rex skull ever found, specimen said to be nearly 40 feet long and 12 feet high at the hip

Scotty: A recently described specimen at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Canada was billed as longer and heavier than Sue, but fewer bones were found and more extrapolation required. A Field scientist said they were “statistically indistinguishable”

Similarities

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Marine archaeologist and paleontologist Susan Hendrickson poses with her discovery of the largest Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil in 1997.
Marine archaeologist and paleontologist Susan Hendrickson poses with her discovery of the largest Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil in 1997.

Sue: Discovered (by Sue Hendrickson, 1990) in South Dakota’s Hell Creek Formation, excavated by the Black Hills Institute

Stan: Discovered (by Stan Sacrison, 1987) in South Dakota’s Hell Creek Formation, excavated by the Black Hills Institute

Both sets of bones have been made widely available for study

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Twitter @StevenKJohnson