The 200-pound fossil skull, dubbed Maximus, will go on sale December 9.
Photo: ANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty Images
A T-Rex skull found in South Dakota is expected to sell for $15 million or more to be auctioned in New York next month, Sotheby’s officials said Tuesday.
The 200-pound fossil skull, dubbed Maximus, will be sold on Dec. 9 by an owner who wishes to remain anonymous, the auction house said.
The skull was excavated in 2020 and 2021 in Harding County, South Dakota, where other T-Rex skeletons like Sue and Stan were found, according to Cassandra Hatton, director of science and popular culture at Sotheby’s. She called the area “the tyrannosaurus rex capital of the world”.
Most of the rest of this T-rex’s remains have been destroyed over time by erosion, but Sotheby’s experts said the skull was a major find.
Hatton noted, “When you think about it, more people can fit a skull in their house than people can fit a whole dinosaur.”
The 6-and-a-half-foot fossil is about 76 million years old and still has most of the outer skull bones and numerous teeth, Sotheby’s experts said.
Hatton said this two large holes in the skull are evidence of a “big fight”, probably with another tyrannosaurus rex. “We don’t know if that’s what caused this animal to die, but we can tell that it had a great fight during its lifetime,” he said.
The markings on the skull are interesting to study “because they give us an idea of what life was like during the Cretaceous periodHatton said.
However, this specimen may not be directed to a research institution. “It’s the ultimate trophy,” Hatton said. “To put in the house”.
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