North West

Inside Manchester Museum is a replica of a Tyrannosaurus rex, locally named 'Stan' after the palaeontologist who discovered it.

It is the closest that most of us will ever get to this king of dinosaurs.

In July 2007 Jacey Normand from Inside Out North West visited the badlands of Montana armed only camera and Manchester University's head Paleontologist, Dr Phil Manning.

The mission - to seek out and to walk in the footprints left by tyrannosaurus rex over 67 million years ago.

It was a journey through the heart of the American Midwest, over 3,000 miles in four days.

What was discovered sent a lightening bolt throughout the scientific community.

Conclusive proof that tyrannosaurus rex lived and died in the badlands and, more importantly, that those footprints could hold the key to when it became extinct and how fast it moved.

Stan's discovery

In the Spring of 1987, amateur paleontologist Stan Sacrison was exploring outcrops near the town of Buffalo, South Dakota, when he came across a large pelvis weathering out of a sandy cliff face 100 feet above the prairie.

What they eventually unearthed was the second most complete Tyrannosaurus rex ever found.

Manchester Museum now exhibits a replica of this rare specimen.

Fierce and fast?

In the public imagination Tyrannosaurus rex is the ultimate predator and king of the dinosaurs; a cultural icon which has never lost its place.

Tyrannosaurus rex is the best known and best loved dinosaur of them all.

Since the first Tyrannosaurus rex fossils were discovered over a century ago, scientists have been unraveling many of the animal's secrets. 

The latest research - carried out at the University of Manchester - shows that Tyrannosaurus could outpace humans - clocking up 20 miles an hour.

However, Tyrannosaurus rex would have had great difficulty getting its teeth into fast, agile prey.

American scientists have used detailed computer models to work out the weight of a typical Tyrannosaurus rex to determine how it ran and turned.

Search for footprints

Fossil hunters are seeking the evidence of how Tyrannosaurus rex moved.

Dr Phil Manning of Manchester University believes he may have solved it. 

Footprints or track ways left by dinosaurs have been discovered all over the world - from the smallest animals to the largest monsters. 

In the century since the first Tyrannosaurus rex fossils were uncovered in the Hell Creek area of the American West, about 30 complete fossils have been found.

Dr Manning believes he has found a print in the Hell Creek formation amongst many Tyrannosaurus Rex remains. 

Creatures that look like Tyrannosaurus can be found elsewhere but you only get the real Tyrannosaurus Rex in numbers in the Hell Creek formation in the Badlands of South Dakota.

Footprint spotted

On a field trip to the Badlands in 2006 Dr Manning spotted a footprint but could not confirm his observations.

"On the last day just as we were leaving the locality I spotted what looked like a track - a fossil track of a big three toed dinosaur.

"I did not have any of my measuring gear or key equipment needed to record the data from that track but I am pretty sure we are dealing with the tracks of a big predatory dinosaur - possibly a Tyrannosaurus Rex."

Palaeontologists have been trying to find these tracks for over 100 years. The tracks are important because they tie the Dinosaur to a precise location.

No one can be sure what killed off the dinosaurs - the dust storm from an asteroid impacting with Earth 67m years ago may have helped change the climate. 

But whatever happened, it was a mass extinction, and for Stan it was the end of The Age of the Dinosaurs.

However that was replaced by a starring role in the Manchester museum.