A rare Nanotyrannus skeleton sold for $47.3 million at an auction in New York

A rare Nanotyrannus skeleton, a smaller relative of Tyrannosaurus rex, was sold on Tuesday in New York for $47.3 million. The transaction organized by Sotheby’s makes it the second-most valuable dinosaur ever sold at auction, according to the organizers.

The fossil, named “Jodi” after Jodi Pierson, the person who discovered it in 2019, was sold after a 12-minute auction in which six bidders competed online and by phone. The buyer’s identity was not made public. Sotheby’s had initially estimated that the skeleton would sell for $6–9 million.

“Jodi” was discovered on private land in the Hell Creek Formation, in Garfield County, Montana. The skeleton is 19.6 ft long and approximately 9.6 ft tall on its armature, consisting of around 191 fossil bone elements.

Sotheby’s claims that Nanotyrannus was a fast predator that lived approximately 67 million years ago alongside T. rex. The auction house states that it differs morphologically from T. rex in more than 150 characteristics.

The sale was criticized by paleontologists, who believe that such fossils should be kept in museums and in the public domain for research and education.