A fossilized skeleton of a dinosaur that lived 76 million years ago will be auctioned in New York this month, Sotheby’s auction house announced.
Discovered in 2018 near Havre, Montana, the Gorgosaurus lived in the western parts of the United States and Canada during the late Cretaceous Period, per NPR.
It will be auctioned on July 28 during “Geek Week,” with public viewings available starting July 21, according to Barrons. The auction house’s presale estimate for the fossil is between $5 million and $8 million.
The frame of this apex creature, which is a T. rex relative, is almost 10 feet tall and 22 feet long. It will mark the first time this particular species is offered up at auction. All other known Gorgosaurus skeletons are in museums.
“In my career, I have had the privilege of handling and selling many exceptional and unique objects, but few have the capacity to inspire wonder and capture imaginations quite like this unbelievable Gorgosaurus skeleton,” said Cassandra Hatton, Sotheby’s global head of science and popular culture.
The auction house said the specimen is of “a very large, mature individual at the time of death” with a “well-preserved skull,” per USA Today.
A Gorgosaurus dinosaur skeleton, the first to be offered at auction, is displayed at Sotheby’s New York, Tuesday, July 5, 2022, in New York.
Julia Nikhinson, Associated Press
“Crucially the specimen also contains the three major bones which create the orbit, the feature which distinguishes the Gorgosaurus from the T. rex,” Sotheby’s added.
Plenty of other dinosaur skeletons have been auctioned off in the past, including Stan the T. Rex, which sold for $31.8 million in 2020; a meat-eating Allosaurus, which sold for $2.36 million in 2018; and Sue the T. Rex, which sold for $8.4 million in 1997 to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.