T-Rex skull unearthed in South Dakota to be auctioned in New York
A T-Rex skull unearthed in South Dakota is expected to sell for $15 million or more at auction in New York next month, Sotheby’s officials said Tuesday.
The 200-pound fossil skull, nicknamed Maximus, will be sold on December 9 by an owner who wishes to remain anonymous, the auction house said.
The skull was excavated in 2020 and 2021 in Harding County, South Dakota, where other T-Rex skeletons such as Sue and Stan were found, according to Cassandra Hatton, Sotheby’s director of science and popular culture. She called the area “the tyrannosaurus rex capital of the world”.
Most of the rest of the remains of this T-rex were destroyed over time by erosion, but Sotheby’s experts said the skull was an important find.
Hatton noted: “When you think about it, more people can fit a skull in their home than people can fit a whole dinosaur.”
The 6 1/2-foot fossil is about 76 million years old and still has most of the outer skull bones and numerous teeth, Sotheby’s experts said.
Hatton said that two large holes in the skull are evidence of a “big fight”, probably with another tyrannosaurus rex. “We don’t know if this is what caused the death of this animal, but we can say that it had a great battle during its life,” he said.
The marks on the skull are interesting to study “because they give us an idea of what life was like during the cretaceous periodHatton said.
However, this specimen may not be headed to a research institution. “It’s the ultimate trophy,” Hatton said. “To place in one’s house.”
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