that much Nearly complete fossil remains of a Stegosaurus Sotheby’s said it fetched $44.6 million at the auction on Wednesday. The buyer’s name was not disclosed.
The fossil, dubbed “Apex,” is considered the most complete ever discovered, according to the auction house.
The price surpassed the pre-sale estimate of $4 million to $6 million and topped the previous auction record for a dinosaur fossil of $31.8 million. Tyrannosaurus Rex, nicknamed StanSold in 2020.
“Apex has found its place in history after wandering the Earth for approximately 150 million years,” said Cassandra Hatton, Sotheby’s head of science.
Selling dinosaur fossils is frustrating for paleontologists because they must be stored in museums or research centers, which cannot afford to charge exorbitant prices at auction.
Sotheby’s said the anonymous buyer was American and was considering lending the Apex to a U.S. institution. The buyer beat out six other bidders for the winning bid.
Stegosaurus was one of the most unique dinosaurs in the world. dinosaurIt is characterized by the pointed plates on its back. Hatton called Apex the “coloring book dinosaur” because of its well-preserved features.
According to Sotheby’s, Apex, which stood 11 feet (3.3 meters) tall and 27 feet (8.2 meters) long from nose to tail, was a gigantic stegosaurus that lived long enough to develop signs of arthritis.
A commercial paleontologist named Jason Cooper discovered the fossil in 2022 on his property near Dinosaur Town, Colorado. The small community is located near Dinosaur National Monument and the Utah border.
