Standing 6.5 feet (2 meters) tall and stretching nearly 20 feet (6 meters) long, the rare fossil is one of only three such skeletons known to exist.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s really exciting is that until they proved this genus existed, we thought that T. rex was the only apex predator of the Cretaceous,\u201d said Cassandra Hatton, a vice chair at Sotheby\u2019s. \u201cWe now know that they coexisted. They lived alongside each other, occupying distinct niches in the ecological system.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scientists long wondered whether Nanotyrannus was a young T. rex<\/p>\n
A decades-long scientific debate kicked off with the 1942 discovery of what\u2019s now considered the first Nanotyrannus head, the so-called \u201cCleveland Skull\u201d housed at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.<\/p>\n
Fast forward to last October, when new research concluded that the Nanotyrannus was in fact a distinct genus of dinosaur that coexisted with T. rex.<\/p>\n
Scientists examining the growth rings within preserved bones found the dinosaurs were fully formed adults, not juveniles. The research challenged long-held assumptions that the mighty \u201cKing of the Tyrant Lizards\u201d was the sole large predator of the Cretaceous period, some 67 million years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like a lion and a cheetah,\u201d Hatton explains. \u201cThey hunted different prey. They were around at the same time. It\u2019s possible T. rex ate these.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, there are more than 150 key differences between the Nanotyrannus and T. rex, the most noticeable being their sizes.<\/p>\n
At about 18 feet (5.5 meters) long, an adult Nanotyrannus was about half the length of an adult T. rex. Instead of the T. rex\u2019s famously stubby arms, its forelimbs were longer and its hand claws were larger.<\/p>\n
Nanotyrannus also boasted more and different-looking teeth. Whereas the T. rex’s were bond-crushingly thick and almost banana shaped, the Nanotyrannus’ were more slender and almost bladelike.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose teeth would slash the meat off of the animal it was hunting. It went after faster prey,\u201d Hatton explained of the Nanotyrannus. \u201cYou look at a T. rex, it\u2019s big, lumbering. It went after slower prey, and it would eat the whole thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sotheby\u2019s bills \u201cJodi,\u201d as the dinosaur fossil is nicknamed, as the \u201cfinest and most complete\u201d Nanotyrannus skeleton currently available. Hatton said it\u2019s almost 70% complete, with a virtually complete skull and a jaw that has roughly 35 teeth.<\/p>\n
The fossil is named after Jodi Pierson, the Montana<\/a> rancher who discovered it on her land in 2019. Its discovery and excavation were the focus of the Discovery Channel documentary series \u201cDino Hunters\u201d in 2020.<\/p>\n \u201cJodi\u201d was found some 8 miles (13 kilometers) from where the so-called Dueling Dinosaurs fossil — which depicts a Nanotyrannus and a Triceratops — was unearthed in 2006.<\/p>\n That famous specimen, nicknamed \u201cBloody Mary,\u201d is considered nearly 100% complete, but it\u2019s housed at the North Carolina<\/a> Museum of Natural Sciences and is not for sale. The third Nanotyrannus skeleton is located at the Burpee Museum of Natural History in Rockford, Illinois.<\/p>\n Some scientists oppose such sales<\/p>\n The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, an advocacy group of scientists, scholars and students, has called for significant fossils like \u201cJodi\u201d to be publicly displayed in museums and other research institutions rather than sold privately.<\/p>\n But Hatton argued that if it wasn\u2019t for the professional dinosaur hunters, the world might not have known that Nanotyrannus existed.<\/p>\n \u201cThese people are crucial in the preservation of science,\u201d she said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have enough universities and museums out there digging and doing field programs. We absolutely need private diggers who invest their own money to go do this.\u201d<\/p>\n Stuart Sumida, the society\u2019s president and a biology professor at California<\/a> State University San Bernardino, rejected the notion as a \u201cblatant lie.\u201d The latest auction comes after Sotheby’s sold a T. rex fossil for a record $50.1 million<\/a> this summer.<\/p>\n \u201cNo peer-reviewed scientific study can be published on specimens that are not held in the public trust,\u201d he said. \u201cOnce in private hands it can never be studied, and generations of children and adults alike will never see it again.\u201d<\/p>\n
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