One of the most unusually complete specimens of a T-Rex fossil in the world was sold for a record $31.8 million (over INR 232 crore) by auction company Christie¡¯s in New York.
It nearly quadruples the previous highest price for a dinosaur at an auction in 1977, when T-rex?fossil named Sue was brought at $8.36 million by the Field Museum of Natural History.?
Officially called BHI 3033, the specimen is popularly known as Stan, after its discoverer, amateur paleontologist Stan Sacrison, who found it in 1987 in the Hell Creek Formation near the town of Buffalo, South Dakota. The fossil has been located at the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research.??The?T-Rex would have weighed in at around 8 tonne when alive, some 67 million years ago.?The fossil stands 13 feet (four meters) high and 40 feet long, with puncture marks in the skull and neck that experts believe show evidence of fights with fellow T-Rexes.??
Bids hit the $9 million mark in less than two minutes after the start of the auction, but after 14 minutes there were just three bidders left in the race, until the hammer came down on an offer of $27.5 million, to which were added costs and commissions. The identity of the buyer hasn't been disclosed by Christie's, reports The New York Times.
Only around 50 Tyrannosaurus fossils have been discovered since the first was unearthed in 1902.Paleontologists worry such sales will encourage more private trade of fossils, leaving important specimens off-limits to researchers. The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology wrote to auction company Christie's?asking it to restrict the sale to "institutions committed to curating specimens for the public good and in perpetuity, or those bidding on behalf of such institutions."