The World’s Largest T-Rex Skeleton Towers Over Visitors at This Chicago Museum

The Field Museum in Chicago

Chicago’s Field Museum started with stuff left over from the 1893 World’s Fair. Now it houses over 40 million items, from tiny bugs to SUE, the biggest T. rex ever found. And at one million square feet, one day isn’t enough to see it all.

Here are some of our favorite highlights at this incredible museum.

SUE the T. Rex

Meet SUE, the star attraction measuring 40.5 feet long and weighing nine tons when alive.

This remarkable T. rex moved to a custom-designed suite in The Griffin Halls of Evolving Planet in 2018 after scientists updated the skeleton to reflect new research.

At 90% complete with 250 of 380 known T. rex bones, SUE includes rare furcula (wishbone) and gastralia (belly ribs) bones.

The dinosaur lived 67 million years ago and reached the ripe old age of 28-33 years, making it the oldest known T. rex until Trix was discovered in 2013.

Interactive displays reveal fascinating details about SUE’s injuries, including broken ribs and a damaged shoulder blade.

Follow the Planet’s Timeline

Journey through 4 billion years of life on Earth in this 26,000-square-foot exhibition.

Starting with single-celled organisms and progressing to complex life forms, this comprehensive exhibit documents the entire evolutionary story.

Don’t miss the details about all six major extinction events, including the Permian extinction that wiped out 95% of all life forms 250 million years ago.

The Chicago Archaeopteryx, one of only 12 such fossils ever found, demonstrates the critical evolutionary link between dinosaurs and birds.

Other highlights include a massive 72-foot-long Apatosaurus and original bones from the Brachiosaurus guarding the museum entrance.

Check Out the Ancient Egyptian Tombs

Step into a three-story recreation of Unis-ankh’s tomb dating back to 2400 BC.

This immersive experience features authentic rooms from the original tomb in Saqqara, Egypt, which the museum purchased in 1908.

The exhibit showcases 23 human mummies, 30 animal mummies, floor-to-ceiling hieroglyphs, and a rare 4,000-year-old royal boat.

In 2024, the museum conducted CT scans of 26 mummies without unwrapping them, revealing new details about their identities and preparation methods.

After descending a spiral staircase, visitors can explore a recreation of an ancient marketplace based on authentic scenes from tomb walls.

Learn about Chinese History

Opened in 2015, this expansive exhibit displays 350 objects across five galleries, replacing a previously cramped presentation of artifacts.

Large touch screens serve as interactive labels, allowing deeper exploration of pottery, jades, bronzes, ceramics, and other treasures spanning centuries.

The religious section highlights Buddhism’s arrival in China and its coexistence with Daoism, complete with shadow puppet performances.

Among the most fascinating items are artifacts from the Java Sea Shipwreck (12th-13th centuries CE), demonstrating how Chinese goods and ideas traveled internationally 800 years ago.

The journey concludes in a tranquil Chinese rock garden featuring imported “spirit stones.”

Say Hello to the Largest Dinosaur Ever

Immediately upon entering Stanley Field Hall, visitors encounter Máximo, a titanosaur cast measuring an astounding 122 feet from snout to tail.

This Patagotitan mayorum specimen represents the largest dinosaur species ever discovered, with bones originally excavated from an Argentinian farm.

Máximo arrived after SUE moved to the Evolving Planet exhibit, quickly becoming an iconic photo opportunity.

Part of the Griffin Dinosaur Experience funded by Kenneth C. Griffin, the massive skeleton allows visitors to walk beneath its rib cage and look into its eye sockets from the second story.

Walk Through the Ancient Americas Exhibit

Trace 13,000 years of human achievement in the Western Hemisphere through this fascinating exploration of indigenous cultures.

The Robert R. McCormick Halls of the Ancient Americas features an 800-year-old pueblo visitors can enter, hand-carved tools from ice-age hunters, and a full-sized replica of the Aztec Sun Stone.

The exhibition highlights advanced civilizations that developed sophisticated technologies in architecture, agriculture, mathematics, and astronomy rivaling their Old World counterparts.

Stop by the African Wildlife Dioramas

Marvel at African animals posed in lifelike scenes, beginning with a water hole diorama featuring rhinos, giraffes, zebras, and smaller creatures.

The Field Museum revolutionized natural history displays through Carl E. Akeley’s groundbreaking taxidermy techniques, creating more realistic presentations than ever before.

Don’t miss the famous Lions of Tsavo, two man-eaters that terrorized railway workers in East Africa in 1898.

The exhibit culminates in a room with a mural of Africa’s Rift Valley highlighting ongoing Field Museum research.

A separate section focuses on Madagascar’s unique wildlife, showcasing lemurs and other species that evolved in isolation.

Look at the World from a Bug-Sized Perspective

Shrink down to less than an inch tall in this immersive experience that provides a bug’s-eye view of the world beneath our feet.

Coming face-to-face with an 11-foot crawfish and a mother earwig guarding her brood helps visitors understand the complex world of soil organisms.

See Tiffany’s 1893 World’s Fair Gems

Dating back to the museum’s origins, the Grainger Hall of Gems began with Tiffany & Co.’s collection from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.

Today this visitor favorite houses over 600 gemstone specimens and 150 jewelry pieces, including a 5,890-carat topaz and a 3,400-year-old Egyptian garnet necklace.

Renovated in 2009 under Dr. Lance Grande’s direction, the hall features innovative displays with honey-colored walls, oak floors, and natural lighting rather than traditional dark backgrounds.

Each display presents gems in three stages: raw crystal, cut stone, and finished jewelry, while interactive touchscreens explain mineral structures and crystal systems.

Visit the Bird Collections That Have Driven Research Since 1869

Completely revamped in 2012, the Ronald and Christina Gidwitz Hall of Birds showcases the diversity of avian life with modern displays and media integration.

The museum’s ornithological collection began in 1869 with specimens from artist-naturalist Daniel Giraud Elliot and continues to expand through active field research.

Spend Time with Asian Wildlife

Located in the Carl E. Akeley Memorial Hall, this exhibit presents Asian wildlife in meticulously crafted habitats.

Beginning with high-elevation animals including mountain goats, sheep, and the elusive snow leopard, the displays demonstrate adaptations to various Asian environments.

The centerpiece features an Indian rhinoceros, representing one of three “odd-toed ungulates” in the museum’s collection.

Jade Artifacts Tell 8,000-Year Story Of Chinese Culture

Travel through eight millennia of Chinese history through jade objects ranging from neolithic burial items to 20th-century artworks.

More than 450 jade pieces demonstrate how this extraordinarily hard stone required specialized tools and techniques to work.

The Elizabeth Hubert Malott Hall of Jades presents artifacts showing jade’s evolution from ceremonial objects in ancient tombs to symbols of status among political elites.

Rare Audubon Folio Shows American Birds In Taxonomic Order

Examine one of only two known copies of John James Audubon’s “The Birds of America” arranged in taxonomic order, on display through January 17, 2026.

This rare Double Elephant folio belonged to Audubon’s family physician Dr. Benjamin Phillips and contains all 13 composite plates.

The massive book, measuring approximately 39.5 by 28.5 inches, allowed Audubon to depict birds at life size.

Each hand-colored engraving represents hundreds of hours of observation and documentation, with some illustrations now serving as the only visual record of extinct species like the Carolina parakeet and passenger pigeon.

The Field Museum welcomes visitors daily from 9am to 5pm, with last entry at 4pm.

Located at 1400 S. Dusable Lake Shore Drive, all these exhibits come included with basic admission.