Susan Hendrickson was born on December 2,1949 and is an American explorer and fossil collector.
20 Facts About Sue Hendrickson
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Sue Hendrickson is best known for her discovery of the remains of a Tyrannosaurus rex in South Dakota on August 12,1990, in the Cheyenne River Reservation.
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Sue Hendrickson's discovery is the most complete skeleton of Tyrannosaurus known to science.
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Sue Hendrickson has found other important fossils and artifacts around the world.
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Sue Hendrickson was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Lee and Mary Sue Hendrickson; her family soon moved to nearby Munster, Indiana, where she grew up.
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Sue Hendrickson has two siblings: an older brother, John, and her younger sister, Karen.
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Sue Hendrickson's father was a successful railroad purchasing agent, while her mother worked at American Airlines.
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In 1955, Sue Hendrickson was enrolled at Munster's public elementary school, frequently being praised by her teachers as "a good student and obedient child".
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An adventurous and rebellious teenager, Sue Hendrickson never completed high school, dropping out at the age of 17 in favor of moving from state to state with her boyfriend before settling in Florida, where she was hired by two professional divers who ran an aquarium fish business.
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Sue Hendrickson later moved to Seattle, earned her GED, and considered enrolling at the University of Washington in order to pursue a marine biology degree, but decided against it, leaving Seattle after a year and moving back to Florida to pursue her diving career.
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In 1963, Sue Hendrickson had a large circle of friends in the diving business, and one day was invited to participate in a salvage diving expedition off the Florida Keys, which she eagerly undertook.
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Sue Hendrickson's job was to retrieve valuable building materials that were stored in a cargo freighter which ran aground on a coral reef.
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Sue Hendrickson was fascinated by working in the company of archaeologists and fell in love with the country, visiting the island often.
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Sue Hendrickson had become one of the largest amber providers for scientists.
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Sue Hendrickson found three perfect 23-million-year-old butterflies, which make up a half of the whole world's total collection.
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Sue Hendrickson met Swiss paleontologist Kirby Siber, who allowed her to join his team consisting of paleontologists Carlos Martin and Peter Larson.
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The group began excavating Miocene baleen whale fossils at an ancient seabed in Peru, and Sue Hendrickson joined the team for several summers, discovering fossilized dolphins, seals, and sharks.
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Sue Hendrickson later accompanied Larson to the Black Hills Institute in South Dakota.
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In 1992, Sue Hendrickson joined a team of marine archaeologists headed by Franck Goddio.
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Sue Hendrickson is a member of the Paleontological Society, Explorers Club, Society for Historical Archaeology, and was awarded an honorary Ph.