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CNN Today

T. Rex Debuts in Chicago Museum

Aired May 17, 2000 - 2:53 p.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

LOU WATERS, CNN ANCHOR: CNN's Jeff Flock has drawn the best assignment of the day, he's below us at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History at the stunning new dinosaur exhibit.

Jeff, tell us all about it.

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'd be happy to, Lou.

Fun facts to know and tell about Sue today -- this is our last live report from the Field Museum. It is now packed with folks who have come to see something they haven't seen in 67 -- that hasn't been seen in 67 million years. Why do we care?

Well, it's because this is most complete, biggest and most extensive fossil of a Tyrannosaurus rex that has ever been uncovered by man, and man, I am told, has been about the business of uncovering Tyrannosaurus rex bones for about 100 years or so.

We did not want to get away without telling you that you can -- this exhibit is such a thing that you can walk, as I'm doing right now, walk in 360 around Sue, the dinosaur, and get a real feel for it.

One of the people -- the key people responsible, a large team put this together. But the man who actually built it is the guy that I am with right now, Phil Fraley. The superstructure that you designed to make this thing all hold together was an engineering feat, I'm telling you.

PHIL FRALEY, CHIEF MOUNTMAKER: Well, thank you, Jeff. It was extremely difficult to come up with the pose and with the armature to make sure that it worked correctly for what we wanted to do with it.

FLOCK: You don't want these valuable bones falling.

FRALEY: Absolutely not, that would be -- that would make us look pretty bad.

FLOCK: How did you decide on this pose? It's not in a standing pose where it's attacking and that sort of thing. What is this one supposed to be?

FRALEY: Well, we worked with the curatorial staff here at the Field Museum. We developed three drawings and in this instance we chose the pose where Sue had been drinking water. We were looking to create a pose that would take advantage of the static nature of the mount itself.

FLOCK: I want to take you away from being an academic right now just -- and last ask you before we get away from you, as we stand here and look at this, we are with almost arm's length of this head and these teeth that are almost a foot long, some of them. What is your reaction just as a human being?

FRALEY: Fear. I would be afraid to have this animal in close proximity. It could actually run at 35 miles per hour based on scientific evidence, so if we were this close to it we would literally not have the chance of getting away from it. So, it is fairly frightening.

FLOCK: Phil, amazing. Thank you so much, appreciate it.

We want to get away -- before we get away, we want to have one last word with someone about the future of this exhibit. It's neat to have it unveiled today. It was a special day. But this young lady is in charge of the future, and tell me what will become of this? Is the learning stopped today at the conclusion of the two-year process of putting this all together?

MARY ELLEN MUNLEY, FIELD MUSEUM EDUCATION DIR.: Well, you know, as we say, we've been preparing for today for over two years. But for us in the education department, this is really the day that it all begins. It's been fabulous today watching everybody come in, have their eyes just pop when they see this wonderful specimen, to see Sue, and she's going to really be the vehicle, the centerpiece for us being able to interest people in science for years and years and years to come.

FLOCK: Are you scared that you can't top this one? I mean, this is a pretty special fossil that you've got here, something that the world has never seen before.

MUNLEY: This is a really extraordinary fossil, and I don't think it's so much a matter of we have to keep topping her. It's that we have to live up to her. And with the teacher institutes that we are planning, with the electronic field trip that reached 5 millions students and teachers all over the country, with the family fun learning days and our reading program all summer with the Chicago public libraries, it truly is a day that's just going to begin things that I think we can't even imagine sitting here today what it's going to bring.

FLOCK: Give me one last word and that is, as I asked Phil Fraley, look at that as just when we walk in here and look at it without the other -- the thoughts of what you've gone through to put this together, what's your reaction, your visceral reaction as you look at this thing?

MUNLEY: I just think she's stunning. She's spectacular. And the thing that I just can't get over is to stand here and look at her and say, my -- it's real. She's real. I mean, those are bones, they were there, you know, 67 million years ago. And it just makes you wonder about the planet, it makes you wonder about science, it makes you wonder about life. You wonder how it got from what she is like now to what we are like today. She's just spectacular.

FLOCK: Mary Ellen, thank you so much, appreciate the opportunity to broadcast this live throughout the day on CNN, on a wonderful fossil, we will continue to watch it and watch it gather dust, I guess. I don't know what happens next.

Back to you folks, thank you.

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