Sotheby’s opened bidding on a 67-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton nicknamed Gus. The specimen is one of the largest and most complete ever found — 61% complete by bone count, mounted on a custom steel frame with its mouth full of teeth, posed mid-chase.
The expected price? Up to $30 million. And that’s the problem. Paleontologists are worried that when private collectors buy fossils at auction, those specimens become inaccessible to science. A T. rex skeleton hidden in a billionaire’s living room isn’t contributing to research.
Gus was discovered on a South Dakota ranch. Under current rules, it can be sold to anyone — a public museum or a private collector. Museums have to compete with private buyers who see fossils as luxury assets, not scientific specimens. Museums don’t usually win those bidding wars.
The trend is accelerating. Auction houses are building hype around fossil sales the same way they do for art. And each time a major specimen goes to a private owner, it’s a piece of natural history that researchers will never be able to study.
This article was originally reported by Ars Technica. Rewritten and published by The Coolest Info.
