Telegram Stan

The University of Manchester’s Manchester Museum re-opened its doors to the public only yesterday, after a major £15m refit. It is a Manchester institution and sort of like a ‘mini-me’ cross between the British Museum and the Natural History Museum. This then is a picture of their premier exhibit called ‘Stan’ - a suspended lightweight resin cast taken from a world-famous Tyrannosaurus rex fossil.

Myself and MrsB visited quite earlyish this morning to miss the United-Leceister football traffic - which was a good move. As it happened, there was also no queue getting inside this wonderful (free-entry) museum as we arrived either - though a long snaking queue had materialised by the time we left at noon. It was jam-packed with both exhibits and people inside, which was unsurprising on the latter, as it is also half term. As such, we decided this trip would be just a preliminary ‘reccky’, and we would make another more leisurely visit mid-week later in the year.

It seems that our ‘Stan’, also known by his inventory number BHI 3033, was un-earthed in South Dakota in 1987. He is the fifth most complete T. rex fossil ever discovered I read after. In 2020, his original fossil was sold to an Abu Dhabi institution for $31.8m - the most expensive ever. Mancunians (well the ‘other’ sky-blue half of which I am not party to) are by now, well used to that sort of showy, vulgar oppulence.

Paraphrasing Marc Bolan: “Telegram Stan, Telegram Stan, You're my main man”.