Many people dream of owning their own piece of history, but what about owning your own dinosaur?
That dream came true for an anonymous buyer who purchased a rare ancient Gorgosaurus skeleton for just over US$6 million (about C$7.6 million) on Thursday.
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The sale took place at an event in New York organized by Sotheby’s as part of the firm’s natural history auction.
The complete Gorgosaurus fossil should have attracted a lot of interest, as the former apex predator is a distant relative of the better-known Tyrannosaurus rex.
The unknown buyer will even have the opportunity to name their private dinosaur (although clever nicknames such as “George the Magnificent” have already been suggested by followers of Sotheby’s social media accounts).
Discovered on private land in Montana in 2018, the Gorgosaurus fossil is believed to be about 77 million years old.
The specimen contains 79 bone elements, is three meters high and almost seven meters long.
There are only 20 known fossils like it in the world, but this is the only one offered for private ownership, the BBC reported.
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Gorgosaurus resembled T-rex in many ways, including its massive head, powerful teeth, and small forelimbs equipped with two fingers.
The dinosaur was smaller than the T-rex, but was reportedly faster and more powerful. In its Gorgosaurus details, Sotheby’s wrote that the dinosaur’s sharp teeth were perfect for “cutting into thick skin and penetrating deep into the flesh of their prey.”
Several other items were included in the natural history auction, including an entire rooted T-rex tooth (which sold for $100,800) and a triceratops skull (which was auctioned for $661,500).
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The Gorgosaurus skeleton is the second fossilized dinosaur skeleton ever sold by Sotheby’s. The first was a complete T-rex named “Sue,” which was sold to a Chicago museum for $8.36 million in 1997, CNBC reported.
The most expensive dinosaur fossil ever sold was “Stan,” also a T-rex, bought at auction for $31.85 million in 2020. The skeleton was claimed by a private, unnamed buyer.
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