A rare Nanotyrannus skeleton is heading for auction with a price tag of at least $6million. Nicknamed “Jodi”, the roughly 10-foot-all skeleton is being auctioned by Sotheby’s in New York.
Meanwhile, sales came as some in the scientific community sparked debate whether dinosaur remains should be privately sold.
According to Sotheby, Jodi is an excellent-ready skeleton with about 191 fossil-bone elements, a virtually complete skull.
The auction house further explained that the Nanotyrannus is one of only three such skeletons known to science; the specimen is the first to come to market since researchers confirmed the validity of the genus.
The skeleton was earlier discovered in the US state of Montana by rancher Jodi Pierson on her land in the Hall Creek Foundation, which was later evacuated by commercial paleontologist Clayton Phipps. Conversely, the auction comes as some scientists cautioned that sales could signal a new era of high-net-worth paleontological collecting.
Furthermore Professor Steve Brusatte, a paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh and consultant on the Jurassic Park films said: “I don’t know of any museum or university that can afford a price tag like that,”
“Imagine if the Mona Lisa was just owned by a super-wealthy person and it wasn’t on display and people couldn’t see it, couldn’t enjoy it.”
