T.rex «TRINITY»
The Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, also known as Trinity, will be exhibited in the Swiss Sauriermuseum from January 23, 2024, until January 19, 2025. For Trinity, this is also her debut as a museum piece. Almost 12 metres long and around 4 metres at the shoulder, she will be the undisputed queen of dinosaurs at the Sauriermuseum for a year.
When Trinity was acquired from Swiss auction house Koller on April 18, 2023, it was immediately clear that the dinosaur fossil fit perfectly into The Phoebus Foundation’s vision. Scientific research and sharing the results of that research with the widest possible audience are always among the foundation’s most important aims. While Trinity is in Aathal, she will be extensively studied under the supervision of leading palaeontologist Dr Nizar Ibrahim (University of Portsmouth, UK).
Trinity owes her name to the fact that she consists of the bones of 3 different T. rexes. They were discovered between 2008 and 2013 in the Hell-Creek and Lance-Creek formations in Montana and Wyoming and are all of similar size, quality, and geological origin. The preparation of the entire skeleton took almost 10 years. In total, Trinity consists of 293 original bones, accounting for 50.17% of the total. Compared to other fossils, this is an exceptionally high percentage. Especially considering that only 32 partial skeletons have been unearthed since the discovery of the first T. rex in the 19th century, and that Trinity is a respectable 66 million years old.
Aathal will be the first stop on Trinity’s world tour: the plan is to display the T. rex skeleton in numerous other international museums. However, in 2020 The Phoebus Foundation acquired the iconic Boerentoren (‘Farmer’s Tower’), in the centre of Antwerp (Belgium). The art deco building, once Europe’s first skyscraper, is currently undergoing transformation into a ‘cultural tower’: a cultural hotspot with large-scale exhibition facilities. When construction is complete, this will be Trinity’s final destination, where everyone, young and old, can admire her in a permanent exhibition.
