“Without the work of experienced field paleontologists who carefully collected and preserved this skull, it may have eroded away and been lost to science forever,” Sotheby’s natural history consultant, Henry Galiano said in a statement.
Sotheby’s will be auctioning a massive Tyrannosaurus rex skull in New York next month. It is estimated to sell for up to $20 million. According to the auction house’s experts, the 76-million-year-old skull is one of the most complete paleontologists ever unearthed.
The specimen, nicknamed Maximus, was found in the Hell Creek Formation at Harding County, South Dakota. Other notable T-rex fossils, such as Sue and Stan, were found in the same location, per Smithsonian Magazine. Both also hit the auction block and sold for $8.3 million and $31.8 million, respectively.
“Unearthed in one of the most concentrated areas for T. rex remains, the skull retained much of its original shape and surface characteristics with even the smallest and most delicate bones intact, with an extremely high degree of scientific integrity,” Sotheby’s natural history consultant, Henry Galiano said in a statement.
“Without the work of experienced field paleontologists who carefully collected and preserved this skull, it may have eroded away and been lost to science forever.”
Images from Sotheby’s.
