Sotheby’s made the announcement on Tuesday that they would be holding a bidding in New York City this month to sell the preserved bones of a T. rex cousin that walked the world around 76 million years in the past.
According to the auction company, the Gorgosaurus specimen will be the focus of the natural historiography sale that will take place on July 28. Throughout the late Cretaceous Period, an apex predator known as the Gorgosaurus was common in what would become the western U.S. & Canada. It was 10 million years older than the Tyrannosaurus rex, which was its close cousin.
Measuring 10 feet tall and 22 feet long, meet the first ever #Gorgosaurus skeleton to be offered at auction. 🦖
Watch as our #Dinosaur is put together in our #SothebysNewYork galleries, open for viewing 21 July ahead of its sale in our #GeekWeek auction 28 July. pic.twitter.com/dqR9oIUh16
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) July 5, 2022
The Judith River Formation in the vicinity of Havre, Montana, is where the workpiece that is now up for sale was found in 2018. It has a height of around 10 feet and a length of approximately 22 feet.
According to the auction company, this Gorgosaurus skeleton is the sole example that can be purchased for private possession since all of the remaining documented Gorgosaurus skeletons are housed in museums around the world.
The worldwide head of science & popular culture at Sotheby’s stated that throughout their careers, they have also had the honor of having to handle and auctioning many extraordinary and one-of-a-kind objects; however, a small percentage have the power to stimulate genuine wonder and encapsulate fantasies very much as this astounding Gorgosaurus skeletal system does.
The preliminary estimation provided by Sotheby’s for the specimen is between $5 million and $8 million.
These key moments in dinosaur history – and the paleontologists who uncovered them – shaped our understanding of dinosaurs and the reasons they have become so embedded in western culture. Excavating fossils isn’t just a neat party trick, but is a way to learn more about these fascinating creatures.
