A 150 million-year-old dinosaur skeleton that’s twice the length of a school bus has just been sold for more than $6 million at an auction in France — becoming the largest dinosaur fossil to ever go under the hammer. The giant’s remains will be put on public display and be made accessible to scientists who want to study it, its new owner has promised.
The near-complete skeleton, nicknamed “Vulcan,” consists of exactly 300 bones, of which roughly 80% are authentic, and stretches to around 70 feet (21 meters) from end to end. It belonged to an Apatosaurus — a genus of plant-eating giants very similar to the iconic Brontosaurus — and roamed what is now North America in the late Jurassic period (201 million to 145 million years ago). Private collectors unearthed the fossils at an unnamed site in Wyoming between 2018 and 2021, according to French news agency AFP.
The stunning remains, which weigh more than 22 tons (20 metric tons), were put up for auction on Saturday (Nov. 16) at Dampierre-en-Yvelines — a chateau located around 30 miles (50 kilometers) southwest of Paris. The auction was won by an anonymous bidder who paid 6 million euros ($6.4 million) to land the skeleton.
Vulcan is now “the biggest dinosaur ever sold at auction worldwide,” representatives from auction house Barbarossa, which co-ran the auction alongside Collin du Bocage, wrote online. It is unclear which fossil previously held this record.
The unnamed winner of the auction has promised that Vulcan will be put on public display “at an institution” and has agreed to give researchers access to study the bones, AFP reported.
Related: $25 million auction of T. rex skeleton called off at the last minute over replica bone controversy
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Vulcan likely places 6th on the list of most expensive dinosaur fossils ever sold (although an exact list is hard to come by, especially when accounting for inflation). It is slightly less expensive than “Big John,” the world’s largest Triceratops, sold for $7.7 million in 2021, but slightly more pricey than an unnamed Gorgosaurus fossil and a Tyrannosaurus rex skull named Maximus, each sold for around $6.1 million.
The most expensive dinosaur fossil ever sold was “Apex,” a near-complete Stegosaurus that was bought at auction for $44.6 million by billionaire Ken Griffin, according to Forbes — more than 11 times the original guide price.
Before then, the world’s most expensive dinosaur was “Stan” — the 67-million-year-old T. rex that sold for $31.8 million in 2020. Stan became something of a celebrity after this sale when it disappeared for around two years before finally emerging in Abu Dhabi, despite rumors that it had been bought by actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
The current third-most-expensive dinosaur ever sold is “Hector” the Deinonychus — the species that inspired the appearance of the Velociraptors in the “Jurassic Park” movies — which was bought for $12.4 million in 2022.
