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The rare and nearly intact skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex that roamed the earth 65 million years ago set off from Montana on Friday on a cross-country road trip, its first, bound for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. The fossil of the 38-foot-long carnivore, found on federal lands in Montana in 1988, has played a starring role in scientific research at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman since its excavation by paleontologists led by curator Jack Horner. The seven-ton skeleton of a dinosaur that may have been an opportunistic eater rather than a stone-cold killer is to be mounted at the Smithsonian Institution in an exhibit that will open in 2019 and is expected to attract 8 million visitors a year, Horner said. The dinosaur is on loan to the Smithsonian for 50 years. The so-called Wankel T.rex - named after Kathy Wankel who discovered it - was about 18-years-old when it died and is considered second for extensiveness and preservation only to "Sue," the famed T.rex at The Field Museum in Chicago, he said.Read more...