“This is terrible for science and is a great boost and incentive for commercial outfits to exploit the dinosaur fossils of the American West,” says tyrannosaur expert Thomas Carr, a paleontologist at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin. fossil trade in National Geographic magazine.) Scientists also have raised concerns about the negative ripple effects the sale could have on the study of dinosaurs by incentivizing people to seek out and sell well-preserved fossils rather than leaving them for paleontologists to study. “If this kind of money invested properly, it could easily fund 15 permanent dinosaur research positions, or about 80 full field expeditions per year, in perpetuity,” he wrote in an email interview. “That’s an astronomical price that borders on absurdity, based on my knowledge of the market,” added paleontologist David Evans, the vertebrate paleontology chair at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, who suggested the anonymous buyer could have spent the same funds in a far more effective way to deepen humanity’s understanding of the prehistoric beasts. The day after Stan was sold, paleontologist Lindsay Zanno of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences described the sale price as “simply staggering.” rex dug up by the same South Dakota institute and eventually purchased by the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago for $8.36 million (equivalent to nearly $13.5 million today). The previous record was set in 1997 with the sale of “Sue,” a largely complete T. rex for a record $31.8 million, the highest price ever paid at auction for a fossil. On October 6, the London-based auction house Christie’s sold the T. Now, an auctioneer’s hammer has thrown Stan’s future into question, with the dinosaur bones sold off to the highest-and, so far, anonymous-bidder, stoking fear among experts that this beloved T. Dozens of high-quality casts of its bones are on display in museums around the world, from Tokyo to Albuquerque, New Mexico. But even if you’ve never been there, chances are good that you’ve seen this particular T. Nicknamed “Stan” after its discoverer, the beast was excavated in 1992 and has long been housed at the private Black Hills Institute of Geological Research in Hill City, South Dakota. Because Trinity is a composite, “purists” likely didn’t bid on the skeleton.More than three decades ago in South Dakota, an amateur paleontologist named Stan Sacrison discovered a titan of the ancient Earth: the fossil of a mostly complete, 39-foot-long Tyrannosaurus rex. Two of the sites where Trinity’s bones were discovered were also used to form other T-rex skeletons that were previously auctioned off, Koller noted. Trinity was formed from three different fossil sites in the US, and it was put up for sale by an anonymous American.Īt least half of the skeleton came from one T-rex. AFP via Getty Images The T-rex skeleton is composed of 293 bones from three different dinosaurs. This was the first time such a skeleton went up for auction in Europe. Nils Knoetschke, a scientific adviser who was quoted in the auction catalog, wrote that most dinosaurs are typically found without their skulls. The skull was a particular point of interest for buyers as it was remarkably well-preserved, Koller said. The skeleton was one of the main focuses of the auction, which featured some 70 items, and during the bidding process, Trinity’s skull was set up next to the auctioneer’s podium. “Trinity” was sold to an unnamed private collector for $5.3 million plus fees. Green noted that because Trinity was a composite, “purists” likely didn’t bid on the skeleton. “I hope it’s going to be shown somewhere in public.” “It’s a fair price for the dino,” said Karl Green, the auction house’s marketing director. The Koller auction house, where Trinity was sold on Tuesday, noted that it was the first time such a skeleton went up for auction in Europe, with the bones going to an unnamed private collector.Īlthough the buyer paid $5.3 million for the skeleton, the added premium and fees brought the total sales price up to more than $6 million, within the range the auction house was aiming for. The T-rex skeleton, standing 12.8 feet high and 38.1 feet long, is composed of 293 bones from three different dinosaurs, hence its name. The near-complete composite of a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton dubbed “Trinity” sold for $6.1 million at an auction in Zurich, Switzerland. Paul Newman possessions - including ‘Slap Shot’ and ‘Cool Hand Luke’ props - up for auctionĭolly Parton’s Dollywood is about to get a major $500M face-lift I bought a $50 leather chair - and resold it for a whopping $100Kģ ‘brand-new’ Teslas found in China after 13 years now worth a record $2M
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