NEW YORK — The fossilized skeleton of a T. rex ancestor is projected to fetch between $5 million and $8 million when it hits the Sotheby’s auction block later this month in New York.
According to the auction house, the Gorgosaurus skeleton is being offered as a “highlight” in its July 28 Natural History auction.
The gigantic Gorgosaurus was an apex carnivore that lived in what is now the western United States and Canada during the late Cretaceous Period, predating the Tyrannosaurus rex by 10 million years, the Havre Daily News in Montana reported.
The gorgosaurus, a giant precursor to the T-Rex, discovered near Havre, Montana is about to go up for auction at Sothebys, if you’ve got an extra $8 million lying around. https://t.co/CRFJe6QemW
— Chad Dundas (@chaddundas) July 8, 2022
The auction-bound Gorgosaurus skeleton was discovered in the Judith River Formation near Havre in 2018, the newspaper reported.
“Approximately 77 million years old, the Gorgosaurus is a relative of the deadly T-Rex, yet faster and with a stronger bite force,” Sotheby’s wrote, noting that the specimen for sale is nearly 10 feet tall and 22 feet long.
According to the auction house, all of the other known Gorgosaurus skeletons are currently part of museum collections, making the Havre specimen the only one available for private ownership.
“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,” Cassandra Hatton, Sotheby’s global head of science and popular culture, stated in a news release.
For @NewYorkSun I wrote about a dinosaur on sale, and what an apex predator roaming the Upper East Side can tell us about the eternal appeal of the prehistoric, and the predatory. https://t.co/nsWmcQkV4W
— Ari Hoffman (@AriHoffmanWrite) July 7, 2022
According to the Daily News, the Gorgosaurus find is one of several high-profile discoveries made in the Havre area of Montana, which is roughly 45 miles south of the Canadian border. In turn the newspaper highlighted the following:
- Leonardo, a mummified duckbill dinosaur listed as the “best-preserved dinosaur ever found,” was discovered in Phillips County.
- Egg Mountain near Choteau has yielded the largest collection of dinosaur eggs, embryos and baby skeletons ever detected in the Western Hemisphere.
- Zuul, an ankylosaur armored club-tailed dinosaur also, was also discovered near Havre and is considered “one of the best-preserved fossils found in the Judith River Formation.”
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