The skeleton of a Gorgosaurus, a carnivorous dinosaur related to the Tyrannosaurus rex, was sold Thursday at auction for the first time by Sotheby’s for roughly $6 million.
The Gorgosaurus skeleton, made up of 79 distinct bone elements, was found in 2018 on private land in Montana’s Judith River Formation. The skeleton is approximately 77 million years old, according to the Sotheby’s auction listing.
All other Gorgosaurus skeletons are in museum collections, making the unknown buyer of this piece the first and only private owner. He or she will also be able to name the skeleton, akin to the T. rex specimen Sue held in Chicago’s Field Museum.
The sale of fossil specimens at auction is not without opposition from the scientific community.
P. David Polly, a professor at Indiana University Bloomington, told CNN, “In my own opinion, there are only cons. … It’s easy for me as a scientist to argue that that fossil is important to all of us, and really ought to be going into a public repository where it can be studied.”
University of Edinburgh paleontologist Steve Brusatte concurred, saying to CNN, “It’s a brave new world for our science. In a world where dinosaur skeletons fetch millions, where does that leave scientists and museums, who can’t afford such inflated prices?”
Gregory M. Erickson of Florida State University acknowledged to the BBC that such sales are inevitable, noting that “Right from childhood, people are enamored of dinosaurs, so I can see why people buy dinosaur fossils.”
The complete Gorgosaurus skeleton was the most valuable piece sold in the Sotheby’s natural history auction on Thursday, according to Bloomberg. Other items sold included a 66 million-year-old Triceratops skull and the complete tooth of a T. rex.
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