Sue Hendrickson facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Sue Hendrickson
|
|
|---|---|
.png)
Sue Hendrickson reading to children about dinosaurs in 2001
|
|
| Born |
Susan Hendrickson
December 2, 1949 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
|
| Known for | Discovering the T. rex Sue |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields |
|
Susan Hendrickson (born December 2, 1949) is an American explorer and fossil collector. She is famous for finding the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton ever. This amazing discovery happened in South Dakota on August 12, 1990. The T. rex skeleton was named "Sue" to honor her. You can see this incredible dinosaur at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois. Susan Hendrickson has also found many other important fossils and ancient artifacts around the world.
Contents
Early Life and Adventures
Susan Hendrickson was born in Chicago, Illinois. Her family soon moved to Munster, Indiana, where she grew up. She was a good student but found school a bit boring. At 16, she moved to Florida to live with her aunt.
Susan was an adventurous teenager. She left high school at 17 and started moving around with her boyfriend. Later, she settled in Florida and began working with professional divers. She was a strong swimmer and quickly learned to dive. Her job was to collect tropical fish from the Florida Keys to sell to pet stores.
Besides diving for fish, Susan also worked as a lobster fisherman for part of the year. Sometimes, she would volunteer on dinosaur digs during the summer. She later moved to Seattle and earned her GED. She thought about studying marine biology at the University of Washington. However, she decided to go back to Florida to continue her diving career.
Exploring the World: A Career in Discovery
Diving for Treasures
In 1963, Susan Hendrickson was invited to join a salvage diving trip. Her task was to find valuable building materials from a cargo ship that had crashed on a coral reef. This work led her to explore old shipwrecks. She soon traveled to the Dominican Republic. She loved working with archaeologists and exploring the island.
Discovering Ancient Insects
By the mid-1980s, Susan also tried mining amber in the Dominican mountains. Amber is fossilized tree resin, and it can trap ancient insects. She became one of the biggest suppliers of amber for scientists. She even found three perfect 23-million-year-old butterflies trapped in amber. These butterflies are very rare. Even though the digging could be slow, she became an expert at identifying fossilized insects. This field is called paleo entomology.
Finding the Famous T. rex
Susan met a paleontologist named Kirby Siber. He invited her to join his team. They were digging for ancient baleen whale fossils in Peru. Susan joined them for several summers. During this time, she discovered fossilized dolphins, seals, and sharks.
Her passion for finding fossils grew stronger. She later went to the Black Hills Institute in South Dakota. On August 12, 1990, while exploring a cliffside with the Black Hills Institute team, she made an incredible discovery. She found a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton. It was the largest, most complete, and best-preserved T. rex ever found! This amazing specimen was later named "Sue" in her honor.
Underwater Archaeology
In 1992, Susan Hendrickson joined a team of marine archaeologists led by Franck Goddio. She took part in many diving expeditions with them. Some of her most famous underwater discoveries include the Royal Quarters of Cleopatra and Napoleon Bonaparte's lost fleet from the Battle of the Nile.
Awards and Later Life
In 2005, Glamour magazine honored Susan Hendrickson in their "Glamour Woman of the Year Awards." In 2001, she wrote a book about her life as an explorer called Hunt for the Past: My Life as an Explorer. In 2008, she was featured in the "Dare to Explore" chapter of National Geographic Kids.
As of 2025, Susan Hendrickson lives on the island of Guanaja, off the coast of Honduras. She is a member of several important groups, including the Paleontological Society and Explorers Club. In 2000, she received an honorary Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
See also
In Spanish: Sue Hendrickson para niños
