A rare Nanotyrannus skeleton nicknamed Jodi goes to auction at Sotheby’s in New York on October 27, with a pre-sale estimate of $6 million to $9 million. Sotheby’s describes Jodi as one of only three such skeletons known to science.
Montana rancher Jodi Pierson found the fossil in 2019 in the Hell Creek Formation, near the site of the famous Dueling Dinosaurs find. The mounted skeleton stands about 6.5 feet tall and measures about 19.6 feet long, according to Sotheby’s, and it includes 191 bone elements and an almost complete skull with 35 teeth.
The sale has reignited a long-running debate among palaeontologists. For decades, researchers argued over whether Nanotyrannus was its own species or simply a teenage Tyrannosaurus rex. The auction also raises the wider question of whether rare fossils should end up in private hands or stay in public view.
Source: Earth.com
