The auction house is auctioning off a rare skeleton of a Gorgosaurus at the end of July. While fossils have recently been enjoying increasing popularity among private collectors, scientists are critical of the sale.
Standing three meters high and seven meters long in front of a dark background: Sotheby’s auction house staged the skeleton of a Gorgosaurus dramatically for the preview in the New York branch. It is the highlight of the so-called “Geek Week”, during which objects from natural science and space research are auctioned off, such as dinosaurs, minerals or meteorites.
Gorgosaurus roamed the earth around 77 million years ago, according to Sotheby’s. The carnivorous predator was related to the Tyrannosaurus rex, which lived around ten million years earlier. Though smaller, it had some distinctive T-Rex characteristics, such as a large head with jagged, razor-sharp teeth and short, two-fingered forelimbs. An adult male could weigh up to two tons, had a keen sense of smell and excellent eyesight. Paleontologists suspect that the Gorgosaurus was faster and more aggressive than its cousin, the T-Rex, and hunted in packs of four. It also had a stronger bite force of 42,000 Newtons compared to its relative, which could bite with 35,000 Newtons, which is still significantly stronger than any other animal alive today.
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