Here’s how Sue’s doing right now.

Unpainted Tyrannosaurus and Giganotosaurus casts at the Research Casting International warehouse, and the final mounts on display in Cincinnati last year.

Meet a Mount: National Geographic Spinosaurus

Taxon: Spinosaurus aegyptiacus

Specimen Number: Based on FSAC-KK 11888

Year Created: 2014

Dimensions: 49 feet long

Are we sick of Spinosaurus yet? As part of the colossal media blowout surrounding the Ibrahim et al. "Spinosaurus reboot", Research Casting International was commissioned to built a full-sized replica of the reimagined Spinosaurus skeleton (the skull was modeled by Acme design). The mount is the centerpiece of Spinosaurus: Lost Giant of the Cretaceous, which will go on tour after its debut run at the National Geographic Explorer's Hall.

Much like their recent work on Alamosaurus at the Perot Museum, RCI's new Spinosaurus is based on a digital composite. The new hindlimbs and pelvic girdle recovered by Ibrahim and colleagues were scanned and combined with scans of Spinosaurus fossils held in private collections, as well as reconstructions of the bones that were destroyed during World War II. Remaining gaps were filled in with bones from Spinosaurus relatives like Suchomimus. The resulting digital composite provides a unified vision of Spinosaurus, even though the material it is based on is stored thousands of miles apart. 

Using 3-D printers, RCI produced a life-sized model out of plastic and milled foam. This new technology doesn't mean that dinosaurs are rolling off assembly lines, however: the skull alone reportedly cost $30,000 to produce. 

Meet a Mount: Big Mike the Tyrannosaurus

Taxon: Tyrannosaurus rex

Specimen Number: MOR 555

Dimensions: 38 feet long, 15 feet high

Year Created: 2001

“Big Mike” is a bronze cast of MOR 555 (a.k.a. Wankel Rex, a.ka. the Nation’s T. rex), the second most complete Tyrannosaurus rex specimen yet found. The 60% complete, partially articulated skeleton was discovered by Montana rancher Kathy Wankel in 1988, on land owned by the US Army Corps of Engineers. Although the Corps retains ownership of the fossils, MOR 555 was held in the collection of the Museum of the Rockies for 25 years, before being loaned to the Smithsonian Institution in 2013.

Big Mike was constructed by the Toronto-based company Research Casting International (RCI), based on molds of the original fossils. The project was commissioned by the advisory board of the Museum of the Rockies in honor of Michael Malone, the museum’s former director who passed away in 1999. RCI completed the 10,000 pound bronze cast and stainless steel armature in a mere four months, and had it ready for an unveiling at the 2001 Society of Vertebrate Paleontology conference.  

There are many other casts of MOR 555 on display around the world, including at the University of California Museum, the Royal Ontario Museum, and the National Museum of Scotland. The original skeleton will go on display at the Smithsonian in 2019.