| Manchester Museum | - The museum is on Oxford Rd, Manchester
- Tel: 0161 275 8788
- open daily 10am-5pm;
- Sundays and Bank Holidays 11am-4pm
- admission is free for everyone
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Stan is of course a Tyrannosaurus Rex – the most iconic of all dinosaurs and the largest and fiercest predator that ever walked the earth.  | | Putting Stan together |
Stan is the second most complete T. rex ever found and is the star turn at the Manchester Musuem. Stan was excavated in 1992 in South Dakota, USA by palaeontologist Stan Sacrison. Now a cast of his skelton has been brought back by a team of scientists from Manchester University led by Professor Phil Manning. They're hoping to unlock the secrets of Stan’s fossil record and teach us more about this incredible creature and the links between dinosaurs and birds. Stan is on show as if he were running flat out in pursuit of his prehistoric prey. This may look familiar if you watched the BBC’s Walking with Dinosaurs series - but this is the first time that a T. rex skeleton has been displayed in this position.  | | Stan's discoverer Stan Sacrison |
To find out how to build Stan in this dynamic position, and help build a picture of how Stan lived, hunted and died, the University team travelled to the US before returning with the skeleton in 198 pieces. The team’s first challenge was putting Stan back together. Think of it like this: building a 3-D jigsaw that's 40 foot long - weighs three tonnes - has bones instead of pieces - and is extremely fragile as its 65 million years old. Not an easy task. They have already learned that Stan survived a broken neck, almost certainly in a fight with another T. rex – a hole which is a perfect match for a T. rex tooth has been found in the bones at the back of Stan’s skull. Stan will be on permanent exhibition at the Manchester Museum from 4 November. Admission is free. To find out more about Stan – and look at a gallery of photos – click on the links under 'See Also' | 
