Re: Sue Photos Online (Good ones!)

["Jack Conrad" <conradjack@hotmail.com>]

> From: chris brochu <cbrochu@fmnh.org>

 As far as I can tell, there is exactly one tyrannosaurid
> known from the Hell Creek Formation - Tyrannosaurus rex Osborn 1905.  That
> Sue's snout was a little narrower than in the AMNH specimen means only that
> - its snout is a little narrower.

Here-here.  My thoughts as I looked over the mount for the first time were 
that this was an exemplary specimen of _Tyrannosaurus rex_ and in looking at 
it there was never any doubt that it was such.

Intra- and interspecific variation happen to be my bag.  I would second what 
Chris has written above and add that you *should* expect more intraspecific 
variation within the skeletons of physically larger species.  Very small 
species are diagnosable by skull morphometrics and metatarsal lengths, but 
larger specimens show increased variation in more and more specific 
osteological traits.  At _Tyrannosaurus_ scale, you can imagine quite a wide 
range of variation (see Carpenter's _Tyrannosaurus_ chap. in _Dinosaur 
Systematics_ as well as the chapter therein on _Triceratops_).

VERY nice _T. rex_ specimen and very nice mount.

Jack

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