NEW YORK – The nearly complete fossilized remains of a stegosaurus sold for $44.6 million at auction on Wednesday, Sotheby’s said. The name of the buyer was not disclosed.
The fossil, nicknamed “Apex”, is considered one of the most complete ever found, according to the auction house.
The price surpassed the pre-sale estimate of $4 million to $6 million and surpassed a previous auction record for dinosaur fossils – $31.8 million for the remains of a Tyrannosaurus rex nicknamed Stan, sold in 2020.
Apex “has now taken its place in history, some 150 million years since it roamed the planet,” said Cassandra Hatton, who heads Sotheby’s science-related business.
See more information: How ‘Lucy’ Became Such a Famous Fossil
Sales of dinosaur fossils provoke some frustration among academic paleontologists who feel the specimens belong in museums or research centers that cannot afford high prices at auction.
Sotheby’s said the anonymous buyer is American and intends to loan the Apex to a US institution. The buyer beat six other bidders.
Stegosaurus was one of the most distinctive dinosaurs in the world, featuring pointed plates on its back. Hatton called Apex “a coloring book dinosaur” for its well-preserved features.
Standing 3.3 meters tall and 8.2 meters tall from nose to tail, Apex was a large stegosaurus that lived long enough to show signs of arthritis, Sotheby’s said.
A commercial paleontologist named Jason Cooper discovered the fossil in 2022 on his property near, perhaps unsurprisingly, the town of Dinosaur, Colorado. The small community is close to Dinosaur National Monument and the Utah border.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
