The ‘T. rex in Town’ exhibition at the Naturalis Museum in Leiden opened its doors on September 10. Researchers from the VUB had a hand in this exhibition, which stars Trix the T. Rex in the lead role. Researchers from the AMGC team (Analytical, Environmental and Geo-Chemistry) investigated and established the age of the giant animal.
Trix is a Tyrannosaurus rex who died an estimated 66 million years ago. She was roughly 30 years old at the time of her death. Researchers from Vrije Universiteit Brussel specialised in the study of fossil bones were able to establish Trix’s age at the time of her death. Trix was 13 metres long and weighed approximately 5.000 kilos.
Rare
Back in the summer of 2013, Naturalis dug up a Tyrannosaurus rex in the US state Montana. The archaeologists only found small foot bones at the first site. They had more luck at the second site, where they found the almost complete skeleton of a T. rex – an astonishingly rare feat. Trix is among the top three most complete skeletons ever found, and it’s only the second T. rex ever to be shown outside of the US.
The exhibition
The Leiden exhibition opened to great success: on the day of its opening, the exhibition drew no less than 2.300 visitors, many of them having travelled from abroad. The dinosaur piqued the interest of adults as well as many children. The T. rex will remain on view at the Naturalis museum until June 1, 2017. Find out more about the exhibition here.