Never before has a dinosaur been so expensive: the almost entire skeleton of a tyrannosaurus discovered in 1987 in South Dakota sold for $ 31.8 million in New York.
An almost entire specimen of Tyrannosaurus Rex was sold on October 6 for $ 31.8 million (€ 27 million) at auction by Christie’s in New York, a record that “Dismays paleontologists”, comments the magazine Science.
BHI 3033 is “Better known as Stan”, that of the amateur paleontologist Stan Sacrison who discovered it in 1987 near Buffalo, in South Dakota in the United States.
It was already a T-Rex that held the previous record of 8.36 million dollars: Sue had been acquired in 1997 by the Field Museum of Natural History, the museum of natural history in Chicago. Stan’s buyer did not come forward on Tuesday.
“Paleontologists fear that such sales will further encourage the private trade in skeletons, denying researchers access to important specimens.”
Christie’s also received in September a letter from the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology asking it to limit the sale to “Institutions committed to preserving specimens for the public good and for eternity”.
–
