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150 years of turning field trips into expeditions.
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Discover the stories behind your favorite Museum exhibits. More will be added each month.
ICONS - T. REX: THE KING OF TIME
[VACUUM CLEANER WHIRRING]
[A man in an elevated lift cleans the skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex in the Hall of Saurischian Dinosaurs.]
NARRATOR: This is the king of time. For many of us, Tyrannosaurus rex is the dinosaur—our lens into a lost world.
[The words “Tyrannosaurus rex” appear in many different fonts, floating towards us.]
NARRATOR: Since its discovery, the word “Tyrannosaurus” has been used in print more than twice as many times as any other dinosaur name.
[A line graph animates out. On the X-axis, are years from 1910 to 2010. The Y-axis represents the number of times a word was used in a particular year. Different lines represent different dinosaur names, including Stegosaurus and Velociraptor. The line representing “Tyrannosaurus” is a much greater height than all the others, representing much greater use of that word over time.]
NARRATOR: And T. rex landed its first starring role the same year as Rudolph Valentino.
[OLD FILM PROJECTOR SPOOLS]
[Pieces of archival footage from old silent films are played in various spots around the screen. On the left side are scenes from a film with a Tyrannosaurus fighting a Triceratops. On the right side are scenes from a movie featuring Rudolph Valentino emerging from the waves in a swimswuit.]
[Archival photograph of a paleontologist at a fossil dig, superimposed with a scientific illustration of a reconstructed T. rex skeleton.]
NARRATOR: Ever since a fossil hunter from the American Museum of Natural History dug Tyrannosaurus rex out of the Montana dirt, it’s ruled our view of the past.
[A visitor takes a photo of the Tyrannosaurus rex fossil mount in the Hall of Saurischian Dinosaurs. The camera tilts up as a crowd of visitors moves around the Hall.]
MIKE NOVACEK (Provost of Science and Curator, Division of Paleontology): Icons tend to capture the public imagination.
[Mike Novacek stands in paleontology collection space.]
NOVACEK: They’re just too big and too- sometimes too ugly, and sometimes too beautiful to be denied.
[The American Museum of Natural History logo and text appears over a shot of the T. rex: ICONS – The King of Time.]
[Illustration of desktop with open book, lamp, and glasses. The lamp clicks on.]
CHIP KIDD (Graphic Designer): In my work, I get to read the manuscript first.
[Illustration of man in glasses, flipping through manuscript.]
[PAGES FLIP]
KIDD: So, I read the manuscript of Jurassic Park. We’re talking, this would have been back in 1989.
[Illustration of hands holding up a manuscript, labeled “Jurassic Park.”]
KIDD: I was relatively young…
[Illustration of young Chip Kidd at his desk.]
KIDD: Twenty-five, 26. Junior designer for book jackets at Alfred A. Knopf.
[Previous scene morphs into an illustration of Chip Kidd today, holding a copy of Jurassic Park, and then into actual footage of Kidd, sitting in the Museum.]
NARRATOR: Chip Kidd is the man behind a famous dinosaur.
[Chip Kidd sits on a director’s chair in front of T. rex in the Hall of Saurischian Dinosaurs.]
NARRATOR: Behind him is the dinosaur that inspired his famous book cover.
[Hardback copy of Jurassic Park. Cover reads, “Jurassic Park – Michael Crichton.”]
[Illustration of Kidd standing in front of inspiration wall, showing many tacked up pieces of paper. Question marks surround his head.]
NARRATOR: When tasked with creating a design for Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park, Chip searched for ideas.
[MAN’S VOICE SAYING “HMMM…”]
[Kidd sits in front of T. rex in the Hall of Saurischian Dinosaurs. Text identifies him as “Chip Kidd, Graphic Designer.”]
KIDD: Certainly, there’s a lot of books on dinosaurs.
[Camera pans across rows of books with titles like The Hot-Blooded Dinosaurs, Dinosaur Lives, Grave Secrets of Dinosaurs, etc. A hand pulls out one from the shelf and holds it towards the camera. The cover shows a cowboy riding on the back of a T. rex and the title reads, “Two Tiny Claws.”]
KIDD: Scientific paleontology and fantasy and everything in between.
[Illustration of Kidd at desk, surrounded by papers. His head is in his hands.]
KIDD: So, the problem to solve when creating the first edition book jacket for Jurassic Park…
[Illustration of a hand tapping a pencil on the table. Piece of paper reads, “1st Edition (no pressure!).”]
[Kidd sits in front of T. rex in the Hall of Saurischian Dinosaurs.]
KIDD: …was to somehow entice the reader into a story that was about dinosaurs,
[Various pages from Jurassic Park.]
KIDD: …but like nothing that they had ever encountered before.
[Kidd sits in front of T. rex in the Hall of Saurischian Dinosaurs.]
KIDD: But I do remember, before I started and I was talking to our Editor-In-Chief.
[Illustration of silhouetted editor shaking his finger behind a glass door labeled, “Editor In Chief.”]
KIDD: And I do remember him saying, you know,
[Illustrated cover of Jaws, featuring a triangular shark nose and teeth pointing up towards a swimmer and the title in large letters.]
KIDD: …“Think of something as iconic as Jaws. That’s what we want to come up with.”
[Kidd sits in front of T. rex in the Hall of Saurischian Dinosaurs.]
KIDD: And I’m thinking, “Well, yeah, that would be nice, but I don’t see how that’s going to happen in a million years. But hey!”
[Illustration of an insect in amber, a large pointy tooth, and an egg cracking open to reveal a small hand emerging.]
KIDD: We tried a bunch of different things.
[EGG CRACKING]
KIDD: I remember we tried commissioning…
[Illustration of a drape covering a painting on the wall.]
KIDD: …a painting of what a close-up of dinosaur skin would look like.
[The drape is pulled away…]
[CROWD GASPS]
KIDD: And the answer was it didn’t really look like much of anything.
[The painting is of many small circles on a plain background.]
[MAN SAYS, “HMMM…” DISAPPROVINGLY]
[Kidd sits in front of T. rex in the Hall of Saurischian Dinosaurs. Animated pterodactyls circle around his head.]
KIDD: I’ve always been fascinated by pterodactyls. I tried that. But, you know, really, of course you’ve gotta give the T. rex a try.
[Illustration of a Tyrannosaurus rex surrounded by tiny versions of many other kinds of dinosaurs like Stegosaurus and Apatosaurus.]
NARRATOR: T. rex has come to be a shorthand for all dinosaurs. It didn’t live in the Jurassic, but Cretaceous Park didn’t have the same ring.
[Leaves cover over the dinosaurs and then open to reveal an illustration of the Museum’s façade.]
KIDD: And so, I came here…
[Illustration of Kidd walking through Museum halls.]
KIDD: …to the Museum of Natural History and just hung out and stared at this guy.
[Illustration of T. rex skull dissolves into footage of the real fossil.]
NARRATOR: This is AMNH 5027. It doesn’t have a cute nickname. But it was one of the first dinosaurs displayed to the public.
[Illustration of dinosaur feet surrounded by crowd of visitors.]
NARRATOR: So, it’s had time to leave a big footprint.
[Camera pans across T. rex teeth and vertebrae.]
NOVACEK: It’s certainly fair to say that our T. rex is one of the world’s most famous dinosaurs, if not THE most famous.
[Novacek stands in paleontology collections, next to cast of AMNH 5027’s skull. Text identifies him as “Michael Novacek, Provost of Science and Curator, Division of Paleontology.”]
NOVACEK: Tyrannosaurus rex, this skull, is a very important scientific discovery. The first really complete skull and skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus ever discovered.
[Old newspaper clippings, movie posters, and comic book covers featuring Tyrannosaurus rex are collaged on screen.]
NOVACEK: Since the early 1900s, we’ve had many decades to absorb T. rex into our own cultural fabric.
[Time lapse view of T. rex in the Hall of Saurischian Dinosaurs. Hundreds of visitors flash past, taking selfies and taking in the fossil.]
NARRATOR: This specimen, seen by millions of visitors every year, has shaped our collective idea of what a dinosaur is.
[Montage of archival images showing the original T. rex mount—only hips, two legs, and feet of the dinosaur.]
NARRATOR: In the beginning, this was T. rex.
[Illustration in archival style of crowds surrounding T. rex feet. An archival newspaper clipping is superimposed. The headline reads, “Tyrannosaurus Is Enthroned.”]
NARRATOR: Nine years later, in 1915, crowds thrilled at the site of a towering Tyrannosaurus rex.
[Archival photo of T. rex posed in upright position. A man stands beneath him for scale.]
NARRATOR: To the public, it was a monster with enviable posture.
[Archival footage of two men in suits looking up at T. rex skull.]
NARRATOR: But paleontologists already knew the stiff, prizefighter stance wasn’t right.
[Various models of two Tyrannosaurus rex fighting in very active poses.]
NARRATOR: Planning models showed more nimble animals,
[Close-up on archival photo of the support rods beneath the fossil mount.]
NARRATOR: …but the metal rods that had to hold up several tons of fossil could only support the T. rex in a very vertical pose.
[Illustration of various Tyrannosaurs—all standing in vertical pose, with tails dragging on the ground.]
NARRATOR: And thus were born generations of tremendous tail-draggers.
[One of the illustrated T. rex drawings dissolves into a painting of a T. rex.]
NARRATOR: It started with the skeleton, and this early illustration by Charles Knight, done for the Museum. One of the first dinosaurs on film was almost an exact copy.
[Archival footage shows stop motion animation of a very reptilian, lizard-like T. rex fighting a Triceratops. The dinosaur looks almost exactly like the one in the Charles Knight painting.]
NARRATOR: This is T. rex’s movie debut, in a 1918 film called The Ghost of Slumber Mountain.
[Spotlights flicker across the screen, transitioning to an illustration of a King Kong poster. On the poster, the giant ape battles a T. rex.]
NARRATOR: That same animator would go on to make King Kong, which also featured a T. rex. And the Museum Tyrannosaurus was solidly lodged in pop culture.
[Archival photo of Barnum Brown holding a model of upright T. rex.]
NARRATOR: Barnum Brown, the discoverer of T. rex, consulted with Walt Disney…
[Illustration of curtains opening to reveal a poster of Fantasia, featuring a sorcerer’s cap and a T. rex.]
NARRATOR: …on the dinosaurs of Fantasia.
[Illustration of curtains opening on a poster of Godzilla, stomping its way through a city.]
NARRATOR: And Godzilla carried the DNA of Specimen 5027 in his mutated cells.
[Montage of archival photos shows the Museum’s T. rex over the decades.]
NARRATOR: It was the dinosaur that ruled our imagination for decades. The only mounted Tyrannosaurus seen for a quarter century.
[Novacek stands in a paleontology collection space.]
NOVACEK: When I was a kid, I mean, I guess my image of T. rex was…
[Close-up of an old children’s book about dinosaurs. Hand flips the page to reveal an illustration of T. rex standing straight up in a primeval swamp setting.]
NOVACEK: …a kind of ink etching of a T. rex standing in front of a bunch of palm trees.
[Novacek stands in a paleontology collection space.]
NOVACEK: And he’s fully standing erect with his hands up and his tail dragging on the ground, just in those traditional ways.
[Hands hold an open copy of Jurassic Park.]
NOVACEK: It’s kind of the same image you see on the cover of books like Jurassic Park.
[Illustration of Chip Kidd’s face. Reflected in his glasses is an image of the T. rex skull.]
NARRATOR: After staring at specimen 5027—at the time still posed in a very upright stance…
[Illustration of Chip standing at check-out counter. A book slides across the counter towards him.]
NARRATOR: Chip made his way to the Museum gift shop and bought a book.
[Kidd sits in the Hall of Saurischian Dinosaurs, holding a book.]
KIDD: This is the book.
NARRATOR: The book is Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution.
[Close-up on a page of the book showing a scientific illustration of a Tyrannosaurus rex.]
NARRATOR: And the drawing is adapted from a paper…
[Scientific illustration depicting specimen 5027, in almost the exact same pose as the illustration in the previous book.]
NARRATOR: …published in 1917 by the Museum paleontologist who named Tyrannosaurus rex, after Barnum Brown dug it up.
[Scientific illustration dissolves into an archival photo of AMNH 5027 in the same position.]
NARRATOR: And it’s an illustration of this very same specimen.
[Close-up on archival T. rex image. An arrow indicates a protrusion in the skull.]
NARRATOR: You can tell because of this little bump—right here.
[Archival image of T. rex 5027. Arrow again indicates the protrusion and text appears onscreen reading, “ectopterygoid.”]
NARRATOR: When this particular T. rex was fossilized, one of its bones—this one—the ectopterygoid, which supports biting force, got shoved out of place.
[Archival image of T. rex in exhibition hall.]
NARRATOR: It makes for a very distinctive profile.
[Illustration of scientific drawing of AMNH 5027.]
NARRATOR: So, Chip took this scientific illustration of specimen 5027 and started working.
[Illustration of Kidd at drafting desk, surrounded by pencils and design tools.]
KIDD: This was totally pre-computer. We were still doing everything in the art department by hand.
[Illustration of a blank piece of paper. A T. rex skull is drawn out on the page.]
KIDD: I was literally tracing it, but I was making creative decisions about how to alter it…
[Kidd sits in front of T. rex in the Hall of Saurischian Dinosaurs.]
KIDD: …to make it into something somewhere between just a skeleton and a completed animal.
[Illustration of book cover design being fed into a fax machine.]
NARRATOR: Chip’s design was sent off to Michael Crichton for approval.
[Close up of the fax receiving tray. A piece of paper prints out.]
NARRATOR: The reply was swiftly delivered via fax machine.
[Kidd sits in front of T. rex in the Hall of Saurischian Dinosaurs.]
KIDD: I think it said, “Wow, fantastic [bleeping] jacket.”
[Montage of Best Sellers lists, featuring Jurassic Park in the top 10.]
NARRATOR: Jurassic Park hit the shelves in 1990 and was on the best seller list for 12 weeks.
[Archival newspaper movie ads, featuring Jurassic Park.]
NARRATOR: And that was before the movie came out.
[Illustration of movie theater with marquee reading, “Jurassic Park, PG-13.”]
KIDD: They did an advance screening of the first movie for us. And we’re sitting there, and the movie comes on…
[Illustration of movie theater interior. Curtain lifts on a theme park sign showing Jurassic Park T. rex logo.]
KIDD: …and you get to the part where they’re finally going to the park. And there is the sign.
[Kidd sits in front of T. rex in the Hall of Saurischian Dinosaurs.]
KIDD: And we’re like, “Oh my god.”
[Book cover of Jurassic Park dissolves into movie poster.]
NARRATOR: Universal Studios had licensed Chip’s design and adapted it, almost unchanged, for the poster.
[Close-up of the T. rex on the Jurassic Park movie poster. The “bump” on the skull is highlighted.]
NARRATOR: See? It still has the bump.
[Camera zooms into bump on cast of AMNH 5027.]
NARRATOR: It’s specimen 5027’s birthmark—distinctive and unique among all fossils.
[Montage of various other T. rex skulls—all lacking AMNH 5027’s bump.]
[Visitors mill around the T. rex in the Hall of Saurischian Dinosaurs.]
NARRATOR: So, this very dinosaur has made its way onto…
[Gift shop with Jurassic Park t-shirts and toy dinosaurs.]
NARRATOR: …countless t-shirts, toys,
[Kidd holds up box of Jurassic Park Cheez-Its.]
NARRATOR: …Jurassic Park Cheez-Its, and this.
[Kidd holds a box for the Jurassic World toaster.]
KIDD: This is the official Jurassic World toaster. And it burns an image of the drawing into a piece of bread.
[Toast pops out of Jurassic World toaster.]
NARRATOR: Well, it’s supposed to.
[Hand turns toast back and forth, revealing slight toasting on one side and nothing on the other. The toaster didn’t work as advertised.]
NARRATOR: Not everything can live up to the T. rex’s oversized reputation.
[Novacek stands in the paleontology collections, next to a cast of AMNH 5027’s skull.]
NOVACEK: There’s no predator in the history of the Earth on land that was bigger, and by inference, more ferocious.
[Camera pans over skeleton of AMNH 5027 in the Hall of Saurischian Dinosaurs.]
MARK NORELL (Macauley Curator, Division of Paleontology & Curator of T. rex: The Ultimate Predator): I think that it’s probably by far the best-known dinosaur. Because of its notoriety, and because it was found in North America…
[Curator Mark Norell sits in paleontology collection space. The cast of AMNH 5027’s skull is behind him. Text ID’s him as “Mark Norell, Curator, T. rex: The Ultimate Predator.”]
NORELL: …it probably is the most studied dinosaur of all the dinosaurs that we know.
[Various renderings and illustrations of T. rex throughout the decades are shown in succession.]
NARRATOR: Our concept of what T. rex looked like and how it moved has radically changed as we’ve learned more about it.
[Old plastic model of Tyrannosaurus rex.]
NORELL: In looking at most tyrannosaur models,
[Norell sits in paleontology collection space.]
NORELL: …the body is just so big and fat and totally robust. I mean, I don’t view Tyrannosaurus that way. And I think that the skeletal evidence really shows that they were much thinner.
[Animated T. rex stalks across the screen. It looks slim and muscular, and is covered in a wiry fluff on the top of its body.]
NORELL: They were very svelte animals.
NARRATOR: And they probably looked a little fluffier.
[Norell sits in paleontology collection space.]
NORELL: From all the inferential evidence we have, adult tyrannosaurs were feathered.
[Present-day reconstruction model of Tyrannosaurus rex at the American Museum of Natural History.]
[Novacek stands in paleontology collection space.]
NOVACEK: People sometimes don’t like a revision of what they cherish, in terms of their own imagery. But what I find is that over time, that’s easily changed.
[Father and two daughters look at the T. rex skeleton in the Museum.]
NOVACEK: Because younger people come to it without those kinds of connections to their own nostalgia. As science becomes more understood, it’s absorbed by culture.
[Kidd sits in front of T. rex in the Hall of Saurischian Dinosaurs.]
KIDD: You know, dinosaur skeletons suggest the dinosaur, but we have to complete it in our heads.
[In a Museum exhibit, a child and parents dance and run in front of an interactive screen featuring an animated T. rex.]
KIDD: When you come here, to the Museum, you know, your imagination takes over and you imagine these things walking around and how big they are and-
[Close-ups of various parts of AMNH 5027—teeth, spine, etc.]
KIDD: A dinosaur skeleton is- it’s mysterious.
NARRATOR: It’s that mystery that keeps us coming back. Our imaginations layer the possibilities of millions of years over these bones.
[Visitors walk around the T. rex as animated pterosaurs fly over their heads, and ancient plants grow around them.]
NARRATOR: This is as close as we come to walking in the shadow of deep time.
[Credits roll.]
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