DOWNTOWN — The Field Museum’s new Spinosaurus has officially been named Sobek and will greet the public later this week.
An inflatable costumed version of the dinosaur will be on the Shoreline Sightseeing’s architecture river tour at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, leaving from the dock at 401 N. Michigan Ave. It will ride the water taxi in the Loop and between Navy Pier and the Museum campus that afternoon, according to a press release.
Visitors can pose for a photo with the inflatable Sobek and meet the museum’s dinosaur curator, Jingmai O’Connor. You can buy tickets on the Shoreline Sightseeing website here.
Sobek — the replica that lives at the museum — stretches over 46 feet long and is a “really rare fossil find,” Kate Golembiewski, public relations and science communications manager at the museum, previously said.
Sobek makes its home at the Field Museum alongside dozens of other dinosaur replicas, the most notable being SUE the T. Rex and Máximo the Titanosaur.
The fearsome Spinosaurus with crocodile-like jaws lived about 95 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period in parts of North Africa. Spinosaurus skeleton parts were first discovered in Egypt in 1912. More pieces were later rediscovered in Morocco, which is the skeletal version on which the museum’s replica is based.
Last month, the Field invited the public to vote on a name for the Spinosauraus.
Over 31,000 people cast their vote between three names: Sabah, Sandy and Sobek. Each name is symbolic of the dinosaur’s characteristics or environmental origin.
Sobek edged out Sandy with 44 percent of the vote to 42 percent, while Sabah trailed with 14 percent, according to the museum.
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