Tyrannosaurus rex, one of the best-known and easily recognized dinosaurs was featured in an exhibition at Dinosaur Isle Museum, Sandown, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the naming of the species in 1905.

Since 1902 various finds of enormous fossil bones in the western badlands of North America had indicated that a vast, previously unknown type of dinosaur had lived in the late Cretaceous period (70 million years ago).  In 1905 Tyrannosaurus rex was invented as a name for these bones: "King of the tyrant lizards".

 
After the initial bones of T. rex were found there have been more discoveries made, perhaps the most notorious of which being the discovery of a T. rex known as Sue.  Sue was found by a lady called Sue in 1990, and excavated by a commercial fossil collecting business who bought the rights from the local landowner.  Unfortunately for them, the Federal Government decided it belonged to the residents of a native Indian reservation and locked it away, until proceedings were brought to court.  The fossil was eventually returned to the landowner, who promptly sold it for $8.6 million.

This and other stories about T. rex were illustrated in the display at Dinosaur Isle, along with full scale models, paintings and fossils.  Also included was the recently discovered Isle of Wight dinosaur, Eotyrannus lengi, an ancient cousin of T. rex. 

Real teeth from Tyrannosaurus, Spinosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus and Albertosaurus were also on display.  The model dinosaurs made for this exhibition were constructed in our workshop at Dinosaur Isle.  See the Laboratory page for the construction story. 

The model in the photograph is of a young Tyrannosaurus rex made by Steve Hutt in the lab at Dinosaur Isle.

For further information contact Steve Hutt, Dinosaur Isle, on (01983) 404344

During the October school half-term we laid on a number of activities and displays to celebrate the diversity of the pre-historic heritage here on the Isle of Wight. We started the week in poor weather with a number of field trips led by local palaeontologists and archaeologists from the Council Museum Service and its Archaeological Unit. We finished the week off with a day of activities at Newport Roman Villa on the Saturday and a day of activities on the Sunday at Dinosaur Isle. With brilliant weather on the Sunday we were able to get outside and make a replica of a wooden sea-henge on the beach, and produce some cave-paintings (with water-soluble paint). Inside Dinosaur Isle were stands by the Isle of Wight Council Archaeology Unit, Newport Roman Villa, the schools Museum Education Service, metal detectorists and others.

It proved to be a very busy day, particularly on the beach where many of the public were roped in to help build the sea-henge (led by Delian Backhouse-Fry of the Young Archaeologists' Club) and take part in the painting (led by Lorna Steel of Dinosaur Isle).

Monday October 24th to Sunday October 30th

Santa visited us at the end of November and stayed on throughout December. He spoke to many children in his grotto while he was here. Because his reindeer were away on holiday, getting ready for the busiest night of the year, Santa arrived on a sledge drawn by Huskies. To greet him on his first day was Councillor John Effemey (Chairman of the Isle of Wight Council) who was here at his Coffee Morning to raise money for the Earl Mountbatten Hospice.

Coffee Morning arrival 26th November

A weekend event at Dinosaur Isle held in association with the BBC television series "British Isles: A Natural History". The event was held in partnership with a number of Island natural history and archaeological organizations.

30th and 31st October 2004