Rare dinosaur skeleton up for auction in New York

A complete skeleton of Gorgosaurus, a species of dinosaur cousin of the T-Rex and having lived more than 77 million years ago, will soon be sold at auction. According to Sotheby’s, this Gorgosaurus skeleton is “the only one that can be bought”.

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The copy, which Sotheby’s claims to be in “remarkable condition”, will be exhibited at the company’s premises in New York from July 21, then sold a week later.

The specimen nearly three meters tall and 6.7 meters long, discovered in 2018 in the Judith River geological formation in the state of Montana, is still in private hands. It is estimated between 5 and 8 million dollars by the auction house.

« Almost all Gorgosaurus specimens that have been found are in museums. It’s the only one that can be bought “, explained the head of the department of science and popular culture at Sotheby’s, Cassandra Hatton.

A member, like the T-Rex, of the Tyrannosauridae family, the Gorgosaurus (fierce lizard) lived during the Late Cretaceous period and died out around 77 million years ago.

Auction Stars

Sales of dinosaur skeletons now regularly enliven auction evenings, even if it means frustrating paleontologists, who see it as one less chance of exhibiting them in museums.

In May, still in New York but at Christie’s, a skeleton of Deinonychus antirrhopus, which had inspired the Velociraptor of the film Jurassic Park by Steven Spielberg (1993), had been sold for 12.4 million dollars, fees included, to an Asian client.

This price, more than double its estimate, made it the second most expensive auction for a dinosaur skeleton, far from the big star, however, a Tyrannosaurus Rex left in 2020 for 31.8 million dollars.

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