For the first time, a skeleton of the predatory dinosaur Gorgosaurus, a close relative of Tyrannosaurus, is to be sold at auction. However, the sale is criticized by several researchers.
The auction takes place at Sotheby’s New York on Thursday, at 16:00 Swedish time. The skeleton, which has attracted a lot of attention, was discovered in 2018 near Havre in Montana in the western United States.
A limited number of fossils of Gorgosaurus have been discovered before, most of them in the province of Alberta in Canada, but they are all housed in museums. None have previously been auctioned off, and it is pointed out that such a sale would be impossible in Canada. The province of Alberta has very strict laws regarding the protection of fossils – there a Gorgosaurus would never end up on the auction table. But different rules apply in the United States, which is lamented by American researchers.
“Outrageous”
– It is upsetting every time a fossil goes up for sale, and the buyer is potentially a private person. It destroys the possibilities for studies that can provide new knowledge, says Gregory Erickson, paleobiologist at Florida State University and one of the world’s foremost experts on predatory dinosaurs, to Smithsonian Magazine.
Another researcher, paleoecologist Kat Schroeder of the University of New Mexico, is also critical.
– It is disappointing to see a fine specimen of a rare dinosaur at worst on its way to a private collector. Often these become inaccessible to researchers, or are destroyed when they are to be reconstructed or when they are transported, she says.
Feared predator
Gorgosaurus (“terrible lizard”) was first described in 1914. Only one species is known, Gorgosaurus libratus. It lived 76.6 to 75.1 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period, and was likely a feared predator that lived on herbivorous dinosaurs.
It belongs to the same family as the famous Tyrannosaurus rex, and just like it had a massive head with huge jaws, but tiny arms. However, they were not contemporary, Tyrannosaurus lived much later, 68 to 66 million years ago. Gorgosaurus was also considerably smaller, weighing around 2.5 tonnes, compared to Tyrannosaurus which weighed around 9 tonnes.
Facts: Dinosaurs on auction
Not so long ago, it was very unusual for dinosaur fossils to be offered for sale at auction. But the internet and movies like Jurassic Park have increased the value enormously and resulted in many being auctioned off in recent years.
A skeleton of the predatory dinosaur Allosaurus found in the state of Wyoming in the United States sold for $2 million in 2018, and a skeleton of Tyrannosaurus rex from South Dakota went for a record $31.8 million in 2020.
An unusual Montana fossil of the smaller predatory dinosaur Deinonychus, related to the famous Velociraptor, sold for $12.4 million in 2022. All of these ended up in private ownership.
Source: National Museum of Natural History
[related_posts_by_tax taxonomies=”post_tag”]
The post Gorgosaurus skeleton to be sold: ‘Outrageous’ appeared first on Gamingsym.