Samson comes alive at Natural History museum

More than 50 elementary school children pressed against the glass doors and viewing window of… More than 50 elementary school children pressed against the glass doors and viewing window of the PaleoLab in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

The object of their attention was a wooden crate about 6 feet long, 4 feet wide and 3 feet high. Bungee cords secured a blue tarp on top of the crate.

Underneath the tarp lay the most intact and complete Tyrannosaurus rex skull known to modern science. The children and their chaperones, all from Laurel Highlands Elementary School, as well as the local press, were invited to witness the Thursday unveiling of the skull.

The skull of the dinosaur, named Samson after the stronger part of the biblical Samson and Delilah pairing, took 12 years to transport from its discovery place in South Dakota to its current dwelling in the Carnegie museum.

Bill DeWalt, the director of the museum, led the group in a countdown to the unveiling.

“Five, four, three, two, one!” the children shouted as the blue tarp was rolled back and the sides of the crate were lowered.

“Ooh,” the children and parents exclaimed, clapping their hands.

“He survived 65 million years of geological history in remarkably good shape,” DeWalt said, as a female chaperone held her cell phone up to the glass window and snapped a picture of the skull.

Most of the outer regions of Samson’s skull were visible, but the inside crevices and eye sockets were still filled with fossilized dirt.

“How many of you guys have seen ‘Jurassic Park’?” asked Chris Beard, the curator of paleontology at the museum. Almost all of the hands shot up.

The model for the T. rex in the famous movie was based on “only a few specimens” that were crushed, incomplete or distorted during fossilization, he said. The new skull adds to the information known about the T. rex species, including information about its lifestyle and its place in the evolutionary tree.

For example, the position of the eye sockets in Samson has led to a debate over whether the T. rex had stereoscopic vision, or the ability to see in three dimensions, like humans. The sockets are placed toward the sides of the skull, indicating that the T. rex may have had only peripheral vision, like horses or cows, which would enable it only to see in two dimensions, Beard said.

“Another thing we can tell is that life was tough for the top predator,” he said, pointing toward what appeared to be a wound over one of the eyes. The wound seemed to have healed, indicating that the injury had occurred while Samson was still living, and was perhaps caused by a fight with another dinosaur.

Beard then pointed out a rough, bumpy patch on top of the ridge of the nose.

“There was something strange attached to the nose of the Tyrannosaurus rex,” he said, suggesting that it might have been a small horn.

Some scientists also believe that there may have been more than one species of the T. rex, according to the press release, and Samson might be able to shed light on this topic.

DeWalt said museum-goers will have the chance to “see science in action” in the Paleolab, watching paleontologists pick away at the dirt and debris surrounding the bones — a process which should take about two years.

As soon as Samson was unveiled, two paleontologists squatted down and began the slow process of further unearthing the skull, one with a small dental tool and the other with a shoemaker’s hammer and small chisel.

Once the skull has been separated from the surrounding dirt and rock, it will be reunited with the rest of its skeleton, which is being prepared at another site. But first the Carnegie Museum of Natural History will make a cast of the skull, which will become part of the new “Dinosaurs in Their World” project.