The complete skeleton of a Gorgosaurus has sold for $6.1 million in New York. This makes the three meter high and 6.7 meter long specimen one of the most expensive dinosaur skeletons ever auctioned, according to the auction house Sotheby’s. The estimate was between five and eight million dollars.
The Gorgosaurus (“fierce lizard”) lived in the Upper Cretaceous period and died out about 77 million years ago. It typically weighed two tons and was slightly smaller than its more famous relative, the Tyrannosaurus rex. The now auctioned specimen was found in 2018 in the US state of Montana. Since then it has always been privately owned.
In May, a skeleton of Deinonychus antirrhopus, which served as inspiration for the Velociraptor from Steven Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park”, was auctioned at Christie’s. The auction raised $12.4 million, double the estimate. A skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex achieved the previous record price of $31.8 million in 2020.
