A large dinosaur skeleton has sold for $44.6m (£34m) at a Sotheby’s auction in New York City – the highest price ever paid for a fossil.
The plant-eating Stegosaurus – nicknamed Apex – stands 11ft (3.4m) tall and 27ft long from nose to tail, and “ranks highly among the most complete skeletons ever found”, Sotheby’s said.
The car was sold to an unnamed buyer who said: “Apex was born in America and will stay in America” - a move believed to imply that the car may have been loaned to a US organisation.
Apex was discovered by chance by a paleontologist in 2022 near the town of Dinosaur in the western US state of Colorado.
“The Most Beautiful Stegosaurus to Appear at Auction, ‘Apex’ Made History Today” [Wednesday] sold for $44.6 million at Sotheby’s, becoming the most valuable fossil ever sold at auction,” Sotheby’s said in a statement.
The auction house said the fossil exceeded its pre-sale estimate by more than 11 times and “got 15 minutes of applause”.
Seven buyers have joined the bidding process for the largest stegosaurus dinosaur fossil ever found.
Apex was discovered by Jason Cooper, a professional fossil hunter.
Mr. Cooper called it the Apex because its enormous size made it the dominant animal in its habitat.
It is believed that Apex roamed the planet about 150 million years ago during the late Jurassic period.
The previous dinosaur fossil sale record was set in 2020, when a tyrannosaurus rex — known as Stan — sold for $31.8 million.
