Nanotyrannus skeleton sells for $47.3m in New York auction
A tiny dinosaur skeleton nicknamed Jodi has sold at auction in New York for forty-seven point three million dollars, becoming the second most valuable fossil ever sold.
A dinosaur skeleton once mistaken for a young Tyrannosaurus rex has fetched a fortune at auction in New York, selling for forty-seven point three million dollars.
The skeleton, nicknamed Jodi, belongs to a Nanotyrannus, a smaller and sleeker cousin of the T. rex. Scientists only recently confirmed it as a species in its own right, after decades of debate over whether such fossils were simply teenage T. rexes.
Just three Nanotyrannus skeletons are known to science, and Jodi, which dates back around sixty-seven million years, is almost complete, with around one hundred and ninety-one bone elements and a beautifully preserved skull.
The sale makes Jodi the second most valuable dinosaur fossil ever auctioned, behind a T. rex skeleton that sold for fifty point one million dollars earlier this year. The buyer has not been named, and the result has reopened the debate over whether such rare fossils should end up in private hands or on public display.
Reporting based on coverage from BBC News.