The remains of a Tyrannosaurus rex named Gus sold at auction for a record $50 million, becoming the most expensive dinosaur skeleton in history, according to infohub.kz.
The fossil was discovered in 2021 on private land in South Dakota. It was named in memory of the deceased landowner, Gary Gase Liking. The excavation took three years: bones could only be extracted during the summer months when the soil thawed. Another three years were spent reconstructing the skeleton.
The specimen is considered one of the most complete and largest ever found, with about 63% of the skeleton preserved. The skeleton measures 11.6 meters in length. These creatures roamed the Earth approximately 72–66 million years ago.
The previous price record for a fossil belonged to the stegosaurus Apex. In 2024, financier Ken Griffin purchased it for $44.6 million (11 times its estimate).
Before the auction, Gus's fossils were estimated at $20–30 million. According to the BBC, seven bidders competed for the lot. The buyer chose to remain anonymous.
As a result, Tyrannosaurus rex Gus is now the most expensive dinosaur in history.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg notes that dinosaurs have become status symbols for billionaires, akin to Fabergé eggs. This poses a danger to science: paleontologists fear that fossil reptiles may end up in private collections, making study difficult.
Earlier, Kursiv LifeStyle reported that a bag made from recreated Tyrannosaurus rex leather was sold at auction for hundreds of thousands of euros.