Sue is a very versatile 67-million-year-old tyrant lizard king — or Tyrannosaurus rex, as most of us know her. Her two hundred bones have been carefully assembled in the main entrance of Chicago's Field Museum in a manner so that each one can be removed for scientific study. While the fact that she is the world's largest, most complete, and best-preserved representative of her species attracts many dinosaur-obsessed youngsters to the Field, it also brings paleontologists from around the world who can conduct research on her actual skeleton. Although Sue and her ilk have been extinct for millions of years, she is breaking new ground in terms of innovations in museum research and financing.

Field Museum president John McCarter was intrigued when he learned that Sue would be auctioned at Sotheby's in 1997. "I started to think about what the dinosaur could mean for the Field, in terms of education, research, and visitorship," recalls McCarter, who took two of his top scientists to the Sotheby's warehouse in New York to meet Sue prior to the auction. After several hours of photographing, measuring, and inspecting, McCarter asked his colleagues if they wanted him to bid on Sue. A resounding kid-in-the-candy-store "yes" put him on his next task — raising the funds to purchase her.

McCarter first approached McDonald's chairman Fred Turner with a well-planned fifteen-minute presentation. "About a minute into my story," recalls McCarter, "Fred said, 'You want to buy Sue?' and I said, 'Yes,' and he said, 'McDonald's is in.'" While it took several months to sort out the details, ultimately McDonald's made a substantial cash contribution and brought in Disney and several other sponsors. "But even more important," notes McCarter, "McDonald's helped fund our educational program." Thus, Sue is now part of the curriculum in some sixty thousand schools nationwide, there have been two casts made of her that travel to science museums around the country, and Field visitors can watch scientists conduct research on fossils in the McDonald's Fossil Preparation Lab. "It is much more than the endless Sue tray liners that you will see at McDonald's," says McCarter. "They have been an absolutely fantastic partner."

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