{"id":897491,"date":"2026-10-28T12:00:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T12:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/897491\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T12:00:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T12:00:18","slug":"a-dinosaur-fossil-that-looks-like-a-mini-t-rex-just-sold-for-a-giant-47-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/897491\/","title":{"rendered":"A dinosaur fossil that looks like a mini T. rex just sold for a giant $47 million"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK — A dinosaur that looks like a miniature T. rex is now one of the world’s most expensive fossils.<\/p>\n

The rare skeleton of a Nanotyrannus \u2014 recently confirmed to be a distant cousin of Tyrannosaurus rex, not just a young specimen \u2014 sold for $47.3 million to a mystery buyer at auction in New York City on Tuesday, according to Sotheby\u2019s. The auction house had expected it to fetch anywhere from $6 to $9 million.<\/p>\n

The blockbuster price tag for \u201cJodi,\u201d as the skeleton is nicknamed, makes it the second-priciest set of dinosaur bones ever sold. This summer, a T. rex fossil known as \u201cGus\u201d sold for a record $50.1 million at Sotheby’s.<\/p>\n

\"Jodi,<\/p>\n

Jodi, a mounted Nanotyrannus skeleton, of the Cretaceous Period, estimated at $6 – 9 million, is displayed at Sotheby’s, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, in New York.<\/p>\n

AP Photo\/Yuki Iwamura<\/p>\n

The new owner of \u201cJodi\u201d has, for now, chosen to remain anonymous after outbidding five other prospective buyers online and by phone during the roughly 12-minute live auction, Sotheby\u2019s said.<\/p>\n

A Nanotyrannus was about half the length of an adult T. rex, and the two creatures coexisted during the Cretaceous period some 67 million years ago. Nanotyrannus had relatively longer forelimbs and larger hand claws, as well as more slender, blade-like teeth than its famous cousin.<\/p>\n

\u201cJodi\u201d is one of only three such skeletons known to exist. Standing 9 feet 6 inches (2.9 meters) and stretching nearly 20 feet (6 meters), it has been on display at the auction house\u2019s upper Manhattan headquarters since earlier this month, and is considered almost 70% complete.<\/p>\n

The dinosaur is named after Jodi Pierson, the Montana rancher who discovered it on her land in 2019.<\/p>\n

Sotheby\u2019s, in a statement, thanked the team of professional fossil hunters whose efforts to discover and excavate the specimen were the focus of the Discovery Channel documentary series \u201cDino Hunters\u201d in 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir commitment to understanding and preserving this remarkable specimen has helped bring us to this moment, a testament to the fact that we can all make major contributions to science,\u201d said Cassandra Hatton, Sotheby\u2019s head of science and natural history.<\/p>\n

However, some scientists have opposed such private sales, saying \u201cJodi\u201d and other significant fossils should be displayed in museums or other institutions so they can be studied by researchers and viewed by the public.<\/p>\n

Scientists for decades weren’t even sure whether Nanotyrannus represented a distinct type of dinosaur or merely a juvenile T. rex. But research published last year concluded that it was in fact a distinct genus of dinosaur.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK — A dinosaur that looks like a miniature T. rex is now one of the world’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":897492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[376248,4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-897491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-376248","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=897491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/897492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}