The fossil of Tyrannosaurus rex known as Stan is on display in a gallery at Christie's auction house in New York City. But not anymore. HE has auctioned.
On October 6, London-based auction house Christie's sold the T.rex for the record amount of 31.8 million dollars, the highest price ever paid at auction for a fossil.
Stan
More than three decades ago, in South Dakota, an amateur paleontologist named Stan Sacrison discovered a titan of ancient Earth: the fossil of a nearly complete Tyrannosaurus rex Nicknamed 'Stan' after its discoverer, the beast was excavated in 1992 and has long been housed at the private Black Hills Geological Research Institute in Hill City, South Dakota.
Is it a good idea to allow these kinds of auctions? Scientists believe no, that the fossil could be lost in this way, since the collector could refuse to show it again, limiting the possibility of repeating results such as measurements of its bones or carrying out new analyzes with more advanced tools and techniques.
Scientists have also expressed concern about the negative effects the sale could have on the study of dinosaurs by incentivizing people to find and sell well-preserved fossils rather than leaving them for paleontologists to study.
Stan's skeleton is undoubtedly one of the best Tyrannosaurus rex specimens ever found.
Stan's journey to the auction block began in 2015, when Neal Larson, a 35 percent shareholder in the Black Hills Institute (and brother of the institute's president, paleontologist Pete Larson), sued the company to liquidate its assets. . A judge ruled in 2018 that Stan had to be auctioned to pay Neal Larson for his participation in the institute.
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The news
This fossil of a Tyrannosaurus rex has been sold for more than 30 million dollars: should fossils have a price?
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.