Rare dinosaur fossil sold for record-breaking £34m | Science & Technology Update

A stegosaurus fossil nearly complete has been sold for a record $44.6m (£34.2m), making it the most valuable fossil ever auctioned off.

An unidentified buyer from the US outbid six others for the set of bones, named Apex, at Sotheby’s in New York on Wednesday.

The buyer paid a record price, surpassing the previous auction record of $31.8m (£24.4m) spent on a Tyrannosaurus rex called Stan in 2020 and far exceeding the pre-sale estimate of $4m-6m (£3m-£4.6m).

Apex measures 3.3 metres (11 feet) tall and 8.2 metres (27 feet) in length, making it one of the most complete fossils ever discovered.

The dinosaur showed signs of arthritis, indicating it lived for a significant period, according to the auction house.

Cassandra Hatton, head of Sotheby’s science-related business, mentioned that Apex “has now made its mark in history, 150 million years after roaming the earth”.

Describing Apex as a “colouring book dinosaur“, she highlighted its well-preserved features.

The buyer, an American, plans to consider lending Apex to an institution in the US.

There are mixed opinions within the palaeontology community regarding the sale of dinosaur fossils, with some believing that these specimens should be in museums or research facilities that cannot afford high auction prices.

A commercial palaeontologist named Jason Cooper discovered the fossil in 2022 on his property near the town of Dinosaur, Colorado, close to Dinosaur National Monument and the Utah border.

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The first dinosaur to be sold at auction was a T. Rex named Sue, who fetched $8.2m (£6.3m) in 1997.

This marks the first time an auction house has been involved in the entire process, from discovery to sale, for a specimen of this type, as per Sotheby’s website.