A smaller cousin of Tyrannosaurus Rex, known as a Nanotyrannus, sold at an auction in New York this week for $47.3 million, making it one of the world’s most expensive fossils.
The rare skeleton, named “Jodi” after the person who discovered the remains in 2019, was sold Tuesday at Sotheby’s, the global broker and auction house, after a twelve-minute bidding battle. In a statement, Sotheby’s said the final price came after a twelve-minute bidding war that saw six bidders competing online and over the phones.
The auction house initially estimated that the skeleton would sell for $6 million to $9 million.
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The company said “Jodi” is the second-most expensive dinosaur fossil, after “Gus,” a 50-foot Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton that fetched a $50.1 million price tag at a Sotheby’s auction in July 2026.
The skeleton measures about 19 feet long from the nose to the tail and around 9 feet tall. It comprises about 191 different fossil bone elements, Sotheby’s said.
Thomas R. Holtz Jr., a lecturer on vertebrate paleontology at the University of Maryland, told the Guardian newspaper that he was concerned about the multimillion-dollar sale of fossils.
He hoped that the new owner would donate it to a museum where “Jodi” could be seen by the public and studied by scientists.
“But if it simply graces the lobby or ballroom of one of some billionaire’s mansions, unseen and inaccessible to all but their friends, servants and so forth, it is effectively lost to both the public and the scientific community,” Mr. Holtz said. “In fact, at that point it is no different than if it had just been left in the ground.”
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