Scientists warn private sales limit access to research specimens
A Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton nicknamed Gus sold at Sotheby’s in New York on Tuesday for $50.1 million, including fees, making it the most valuable dinosaur fossil ever sold at auction, the auction house said. The price far exceeded a pre-sale estimate of $20 million to $30 million.
The sale beat the previous record of $44.6 million, held by a Stegosaurus named Apex that sold at Sotheby’s in 2024.
The skeleton, judged by Sotheby’s to be one of the largest and most complete T. rex specimens ever unearthed, was excavated on a ranch in Harding County, South Dakota, by the commercial fossil outfit Theropoda Expeditions. The fossil takes its name from Gary “Gus” Licking, who owned the land where the skeleton was discovered and excavated between 2021 and 2023, according to The Guardian.
The fossil contains 183 bone elements, Sotheby’s said, including 30 of the 32 gastralia, or belly ribs. The specimen is approximately 61% complete by bone count and 75% to 80% complete by bone mass, with what the auction house described as an “exceptionally preserved skull” containing all six dentitions.
Gus stands 3.8 meters (12.5 feet) tall with a body length of roughly 38 feet, a skull length of 54 inches, and a femur length of 50.39 inches, Sotheby’s said. The skeleton is mounted in a predatory pose with a reproduction head fitted on the body; the original skull, which is too heavy to mount, was displayed separately in the lobby of Sotheby’s Breuer building.
The skeleton shows pathologies including tyrannosaurid bite marks on the skull and several post-cranial elements, as well as fractured and healed bones in several ribs and gastralia — evidence of either combat or postmortem scavenging and injuries sustained during the animal’s life, Sotheby’s said.
The sale drew criticism from paleontologists concerned that the rising market for dinosaur fossils is placing specimens beyond the financial reach of museums and universities.
“The 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,” Richard Butler, a professor of vertebrate paleontology at the University of Birmingham in England, told The Guardian. “A fossil not in a recognised museum collection cannot be studied and is therefore lost to research.”
Stephen Brusatte, a professor of paleontology at the University of Edinburgh, said the auction appeared legal because the fossil was found in the United States, where landowners may sell specimens discovered on their property. “But as a scientist, it still concerns me,” he said.