The lost world: Why do people spend millions on dinosaur skeletons?

The skeleton of a Gorgosaurus dinosaur that roamed the earth some 77 million years ago recently went under the hammer and was sold for a whopping $6.1 million at an auction in New York.

The 3 metre tall and 22 feet long specimen was expected to fetch between $5mn-$8mn.

“The result places the Gorgosaurus among the most valuable dinosaurs ever sold at auction, and establishes a new benchmark for a Gorgosaurus skeleton,” Sotheby’s said in a statement.

The sale marked the first time that Sotheby’s had auctioned a full dinosaur skeleton since it sold Sue the T-Rex in 1997 for $8.36mn.

“Today’s Gorgosaurus came to auction without a name, providing the buyer the exclusive opportunity to name the dinosaur,” Sotheby’s said.

The latest sale of a dinosaur fossil has again raised the question: why do people spend millions to buy these skeletons?

Some expensive dinosaur skeletons that were auctioned

According to CNBC, a fossilised Tyrannosaurus rex was sold at auction for $31.85 million in 2020, becoming the most expensive dinosaur fossil ever sold. It was one of only about 50 T. rex fossils ever discovered.

Estimated to be about 67-million-year-old, Stan crushed its original sale estimate of $6 million to $8 million.

It is one of the most famous T. rex fossils because of its good condition, with 188 bones, its head in pristine condition and over 11-inch long teeth, CNBC reported. Before being auctioned, it was on display at the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research in Hill City, South Dakota.

Previously, the last complete T. rex to be auctioned was in 1997, when a specimen nicknamed Sue was sold by Sotheby’s for $8.36 million. It was sold to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.

In 2020, soon after the auction of Stan the T. rex, the Parisian auction house Binoche et Giquello sold a rare skeleton of a 10-metre-long Allosaurus — a large carnivorous dinosaur that lived in the late Jurassic period, 155 million to 145 million years ago — for about $3 million.

According to Quartz, a 70 per cent intact 150 million-year-old fossil of a 9 metre long dinosaur was sold to a private collector for $2.36 million in June, 2018.

Why do people buy dino skeletons?

Just like any rare item in the world, dinosaurs are coveted by collectors for their antiquity and rarity. Rarer a skeleton, higher will be its price.

According to Daily Mail, which cites Eric Mickeler, a natural history expert for the Aguttes auction house, Paris, carnivores like the allosaurus often fetch more than herbivores as "people like the teeth.”

The price also goes up if the skeleton shows traces of a fight or an incurable illness, as well as if it is considered rare, has a high percentage of verified bones, or a particularly impressive skull.

Iacopo Briano of the auction house putting up dinosaur skeletons on sale told AFP, “The fossil market is no longer just for scientists. Dinosaurs have become cool, trendy -- real objects of decoration, like paintings."

According to The Indian Express, Hollywood actors, including Nicolas Cage, Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio, are known to buy dinosaur fossils. There is also a broad collector base in countries such as China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Is it legal?

According to a report by Quartz, in most cases, these sales are completely legal and impossible to stop.

While countries like China, Canada, Mongolia and Argentina have laws banning the export of fossils entirely, fossils found on private land in the US can be bought and sold since it is considered private property.

Fossils that are found on federal land in the US are public property and can only be collected by researchers with permits. These fossils go to public trusts and repositories, including museums.

With inputs from agencies

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