More On: first Gorgosaurus skeleton
At auction, an unknown buyer pays $6.1 million for the first Gorgosaurus skeleton ever found
These fossils commanded a hefty price.
At Sotheby's live Natural History auction in New York City on Thursday, July 28, 2022, a dinosaur skeleton that had never been seen before was up for sale.
The fossil, which was from a Gorgosaurus and is 77 million years old, sold for $6.1 million to a buyer who is unknown.
The person who won the bid also got to choose a name for the dinosaur skeleton.
In a press release, Sotheby's said that the Gorgosaurus skeleton was one of the most expensive dinosaurs that had ever been sold.
This Gorgosaurus was the first dinosaur ever to be sold at an auction, and it is one of only 20 that are known to exist.
The dinosaur was about 10 feet tall and 22 feet long. It was in the family of Tyrannosaurids.
Sotheby's says that the carnivore was king during the Late Cretaceous. It lived in what is now western North America.
In 2018, scientists found these fossils in the Judith River Formation near Havre, Montana. This is a rare find south of the Canadian border.
Sotheby’s global head of science and popular culture, Cassandra Hatton, shared in a statement ahead of the auction that the prehistoric relic was an inspiration.
“I have had the privilege of handling and selling many exceptional and unique objects,” she said.
“But few have the capacity to inspire wonder and capture imaginations quite like this unbelievable Gorgosaurus skeleton.”
Scientists and experts on dinosaurs, however, are less upbeat about the famous debate.
Although it appears that the sale of the dinosaur is legal, Thomas Carr, a paleontologist at Carthage College, said in an interview with The New York Times that he is "disgusted" by the lack of regard for the limited number of fossils that are accessible to the general public.
The magazine quoted him as saying, "I'm totally upset, disturbed, and disappointed because of the profound harm the loss of these specimens will have for science." This is a catastrophe.
About 50 T. Rex specimens, including complete skeletons and individual bones, are held in the public trust for study access, while a similar number are stored privately, according to the expert's map.
Even fewer Gorgosaurus specimens are accessible for research.
“The value of dinosaurs isn’t the price someone will pay,” he said.
“It’s the information they contain.”
