World News
Colorado stegosaurus fossil “Apex” fetches record $45 million
NEW YORK-The almost complete fossilized remains of a stegosaurus found in Colorado fetched $44.6 million at auction on Wednesday, Sotheby’s said. The name of the buyer was not disclosed.
The fossil, called ‘Apex’, is believed to be one of the most complete ever found, according to the auction house.
The price surpassed a pre-sale estimate of $4 million to $6 million and passed a previous auction record for dinosaur fossils: $31.8 million for the remains of a Tyrannosaurus rex nicknamed Stansold in 2020.
Apex “has now taken its place in history some 150 million years since it roamed the planet,” said Cassandra Hatton, head of Sotheby’s science-related activities.
The sale of dinosaur fossils is causing some frustration among academic paleontologists, who believe the specimens belong in museums or research centers that cannot afford high auction prices.
Sotheby’s said the unnamed buyer is American and plans to loan Apex to an institution in the US. The buyer beat six other bidders.
The stegosaurus was one of the most distinctive in the world dinosaurs, with pointed pictures on the back. Hatton has called Apex “a coloring book dinosaur” because of its well-preserved features.
Measuring 3.3 meters long and 8.2 meters from nose to tail, Apex was a large stegosaurus that lived long enough to show signs of arthritis, Sotheby’s said.
A commercial paleontologist named Jason Cooper discovered the fossil in 2022 on his property near, perhaps unsurprisingly, the town of Dinosaur, Colorado. The small community is located near Dinosaur National Monument and the Utah border.
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