Boooo! In the spirit of Halloween, I thought we’d feature one of the most feared creatures to ever walk the Earth.
Meet “Big Mike”. He’s a life-size bronze of a Tyrannosaurus Rex located outside of the incredible Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman.
Big Mike’s skeleton was discovered in 1988 near Montana’s Fort Peck Reservoir, and is one of the most complete T Rex skeletons ever discovered. The skeleton was excavated by a team from the Museum of the Rockies.
Using a mold created directly from the bones, the skeleton was cast in bronze in 2001, becoming the first life-size bronze T. rex in the world. The cast measures 38 feet in length, stands 15 feet tall, and weighs 10,000 pounds. It was dedicated to the memory of Dr. Michael P. Malone, former President of Montana State University, and was a gift to Museum of the Rockies.
In 2014, the fossil bones of Big Mike (MOR 555) were sent to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. on a fifty-year loan. Here they have been reassembled and are on display devouring a Triceratops. This skeleton has been renamed the Nation’s T. rex.
