A stegosaurus skeleton nicknamed “Apex” has broken the world record to become the most expensive fossil ever sold after being put up for sale at Southeby’s high-stakes Natural History Auction earlier this week.
The skeleton that served as the crown jewel of the July 17 New York auction earlier this week was billed as the largest and most complete stegosaurus ever to be found, and put up for sale. The armored dinosaur had been left undisturbed for around 150 million years prior to its discovery by fossil hunter Jason Cooper, who made the find after clocking an enormous femur bone and dorsal plates sticking out of the ground during a May 2022 birthday walk on his private ranch in Moffat County, Colorado.
It took Cooper and his team two full Summers to excavate the rocky site, but in the end, their labours paid off, with the ground yeilding 254 of the roughly 319 bones that make up a complete adult stegosaurus.
With the dinosaur remains free of their sandstone tomb, Cooper set to work mounting the fossils on a steel frame designed to simulate an attacking pose, while replacing missing bones with sculpted or 3D printed models. The prehistoric leviathan’s remains were then crated up, and carefully transported to Sotheby’s New York gallery, where the stage was set for an auction of historic proportions.
Bidding began at a modest three million U.S. dollars, though it took just a little over ten minutes to exceed the US$31.8 million valuation held by the previous record holder for the most expensive fossil ever sold at auction: a T-Rex skeleton by the name of “Stan,” which was sold to the city of Abu Dhabi in 2023.
Five minutes later the auctioneer’s gavel fell, marking the end of a seven-way bidding war that saw Apex the stegosaurus sell for a grand total of US$44.6 million to an anonymous buyer, who had paid 11 times the US$6 million pre-auction estimate. Following the sale, the buyer, who has since been identified as billionaire Citadel hedge fund founder Ken Griffin by the Financial Times, stated that “Apex was born in America, and is going to stay in America.” The buyer also announced their intent to explore the possibility of loaning the 27-ft-long skeleton out to U.S. institutions.
For more science news, read up on how scientists mapped an ancient tunnel extending beneath the surface of the Moon, or find out about the strange medical case of a Canadian woman who became intoxicated on alcohol fermented in her own body.
Thumbnail credit: Sotheby’s, Matthew Sherman
Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer
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