Stegosaurus Fossil Sells for $45 Million: New Dinosaur Auction Record

A nearly complete fossilized skeleton of a stegosaurus sold at auction on Wednesday for $44.6 million, Sotheby’s said. The buyer was not named.

The fossil, nicknamed “Apex,” is believed to be one of the most complete ever discovered, according to the auction house.

The price was well above the $4 million to $6 million expected before the sale and surpassed the previous dinosaur fossil auction record: $31.8 million for a Tyrannosaurus rex named Stan, sold in 2020.

Apex “now takes its place in history, some 150 million years after it roamed the planet,” said Cassandra Hutton, head of scientific affairs at Sotheby’s.

The sale of dinosaur fossils has caused some frustration among academic paleontologists, who believe that the specimens belong to museums or research centers that cannot afford the huge prices achieved at auction.

Sotheby’s said the anonymous buyer is an American and plans to loan the Apex to an institute in the United States. The auction house did not immediately respond to questions about the buyer, who outbid six other people.

Stegosaurus was one of the most distinctive dinosaurs on the planet, with beak-like plates running down its entire back. Hutton called Apex a “coloring book dinosaur” because of how well its features were preserved.

According to Sotheby’s, Apex was a large stegosaurus, standing 3.3 metres (11 feet) tall and measuring 8.2 metres (27 feet) from nose to tail.

Commercial paleontologist Jason Cooper discovered the skeleton in 2022 on his property, which is ironically located in Dinosaur, Colorado. The small community is located near Dinosaur National Monument and the Utah border.