Measuring over 11 feet tall and 20 feet long, the fossil has attracted attention in the scientific community for its sheer size and nearly complete skeleton, and was discovered in a vast rock formation by a commercial paleontologist. It will take place in May 2022 on private land near the town of Dinosaur (yes, Dinosaur), Colorado.
Named for its striking size among stegosaurus fossils, Apex is estimated to be up to 161 million years old, according to the Sotheby’s auction listing, and is about 30 percent larger than another famous stegosaurus specimen, “Sophie,” on display at the Natural History Museum in London.
Sotheby’s said Apex appeared to have lived an uneventful life, with the listing saying there were “no signs of combat or predation injuries”, adding that signs of arthritis “indicate a long life”.
Julian Lewis, a paleontologist and professor at Griffith University in Queensland, Australia, said the fossil was a “staggering discovery” for the scientific community.
“It’s very rare for vertebrates to have so much of their skeleton preserved, and even rarer for large animals like dinosaurs, because some elements tend to get lost during the fossilization and recovery process,” he says, “but it will be a shame to see such an incredible specimen, both for the public and for scientists, go unseen.”
In the past, selling rare fossils to private bidders has sparked significant backlash, with companies and anonymous collectors paying “extortion levels” for rare stones. specimen. Sotheby’s previously offered it for £200 Tyrannosaurus Rex The dinosaur’s remains sold to an anonymous buyer for $6 million, well below its estimated price of $20 million. In 2018, members of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology wrote an open letter calling on a Paris auction house to drop plans to sell the remains of a dinosaur that was touted as a new species. The remains were later sold to an anonymous buyer for more than 2 million euros.
Sotheby’s did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Diego C. Garcia-Bellido, a senior research fellow in paleontology at the South Australian Museum and a professor at the University of Adelaide in Australia, noted that Sotheby’s has listed Apex as an unidentified species of stegosaurus, which could mean the species is being kept secret or that scientists haven’t had a chance to properly study it yet. Excavation of the stegosaurus was completed in October.
“We don’t have a chance,” he said. “Science can’t compete with private industry. [or wealthy buyers] In terms of obtaining specimens.”
“I know how cash-strapped museums are in general. … $5 million to $6 million is an amount that no museum in the world can afford,” he said.
But many institutions wouldn’t be equipped to display such a massive skeleton, Garcia-Bellido added, and commercial paleontologists often spend significant amounts of their own money excavating and preparing specimens.
“I’m not in a position to criticize the landowner who set up and went to so much effort to dig up these fossils,” he said, adding: “What would have happened without him? We would never have known about them.”