With its dagger-like teeth, bone-crushing bite and behemothic size, the fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex ruled western North America during the late Cretaceous period. Now its fossilised remains are about to dominate the auction house, with a price tag to terrify punters.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, one of the largest and most complete T rex skeletons discovered to date is to be auctioned by Sotheby\u2019s in New York with an estimated sale price of $20m-$30m (\u00a315m-\u00a322.4m).<\/p>\n
It could even fetch more: a stegosaurus called Apex currently holds the record, selling at a Sotheby\u2019s auction for $44.6m in 2024 \u2013 11 times its listing price<\/a>.<\/p>\n Dubbed \u201cGus\u201d, the T rex is thought to be about 67m years old, and stands \u2013 ready mounted in a predatory pose \u2013 at about 3.8 metres (12.5ft) tall. \u201cThe huge teeth are displayed within the gaping jaws,\u201d the auction listing notes.<\/a><\/p>\n Thought to be the remains of a large, robust adult, it was discovered \u2013 and excavated over a three-year period from 2021 \u2013 on a ranch in Harding County, South Dakota, by the commercial outfit Theropoda Expeditions, with permission from the owner of the land \u2013 Gary \u201cGus\u201d Licking. \u201cI straddled the road, walked up, and it was the very first thing I laid eyes on on the first day. I saw the metatarsal poking out of the ground,\u201d said Cole Jacobs, a field prospector for the company in a promotional video<\/a> from Sotheby\u2019s.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The cheery name of the T rex is a nod to Licking, who died before the excavation was finished.<\/p>\n But while Gus is undoubtedly a huge find, he also represents a big problem \u2013 at least for scientists.<\/p>\n \u201cThe current trend towards dinosaur fossils being marketed and sold like rare artworks at vast prices by auction houses is very concerning, as is the idea of buying dinosaur fossils as a status symbol or a commodity,\u201d said Prof Richard Butler, a vertebrate palaeontologist at the University of Birmingham.<\/p>\n \u201cA fossil not in a recognised museum collection cannot be studied and is therefore lost to research. Fossils<\/a> have been bought and sold for hundreds of years, but prices are increasingly out of the reach of museums, much to the detriment of science.\u201d<\/p>\n Prof Stephen Brusatte from the University of Edinburgh agreed.<\/p>\n \u201cAs this dinosaur was found in the USA and in America you can do what you want with what you find on your land, the auction looks to be legal. But as a scientist, it still concerns me,\u201d he said. In some countries, such as Brazil or Mongolia, all fossils belong to the state.<\/p>\n \u201cIf a dinosaur like this fetches tens of millions of dollars at auction, then there\u2019s little that scientists or museums or universities can do. Those prices can only be paid by the super-rich.\u201d<\/p>\n The first T rex sold at auction was Sue, a 4-metre-tall specimen found in South Dakota that was bought in 1997 for $8m by the Field Museum in Chicago, with support from private donors and companies including McDonald\u2019s Corporation.<\/p>\n