New York auction to sell 150-year-old Stegosaurus skeleton: How much will it cost? | parami News

Apex is the largest skeleton of a stegosaurus, ever found, this name is also called “Apex”. It will be sold off next week in New York at an auction and paleontologists are worried about this. Sotheby’s unveiled that on Wednesday and until its sale on July 17th, it will remain to be shown.

According to Science Alert, Apex is 11 feet tall and almost 27 feet long; it had been described as the most complete as well as best-preserved Stegosaurus at its size with 254 fossil bone elements out of an expected total of 319. Paleontologists consider this auction to be a part of increasing trend where rare finds such as these should rather go to museums or public space than into the hands of private buyers.

“It’s a very very rare animal and to find one of this size and this completeness is phenomenal,” said Cassandra Hatton, head of science and popular culture at Sotheby’s. According to the auction house, the value of Apex is $4-6 million, which is still less than Stan’s record sale price of $31.8m in 2020 for the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton.

Being discovered in May 2022 on private land belonging to paleontologist Jason Cooper every step taken from discovering through preparation and mounting has been captured by Sotheby’s with input from Cooper for “The highest standards and transparency.”

When dinosaur bones are bought they can cause some debate among scientists while not many people have even heard first-hand what a dinosaur sounds like (Sagan et al., 2001). A T-Rex skeleton was withdrawn from Christie’s South Kensington menu just recently because there were doubts about its authenticity in Hong Kong during bidding period in June earlier this year. Apex weighs approximately thirty percent more than Sophie (London Natural History Museum), who is believed to hold world record for most complete stegosaurus on display to public.

Hatton accepts there is some controversy, stating that “When you have a scientifically important specimen, the museums usually show up and find donors to bid on their behalf or they bid themselves.” She adds, “Most of the people I work with are donating specimens to museums or loaning them to museums, they understand the significance and importance of these specimens.” According to Sotheby’s, Cooper has already donated fossils to museums worldwide.