Money

Rare Nanotyrannus Skeleton Sells for $47.3M at Sotheby's

Are record-smashing auctions proof of a new asset class or do they rob science and the public of irreplaceable specimens?

3 hours ago·Updated 1 hour ago

Rare Nanotyrannus Skeleton Sells for $47.3M at Sotheby's

Story

Above: Jodi on display in New York on Oct. 27. Image credit: Sotheby's via X

The Facts

A rare Nanotyrannus skeleton nicknamed Jodi sold for $47.3 million at Sotheby's in New York on Tuesday, far exceeding the auction house's pre-sale estimate of $6 million to $9 million. Nanotyrannus is a smaller relative of the Tyrannosaurus rex.
CNN
New York Post
Sotheby's on X
Six prospective buyers competed online and by phone during the roughly 12-minute live auction. The winning bidder, who secured the skeleton by telephone, has chosen to remain anonymous and has not been identified publicly.
The Guardian
GB News
The sale makes Jodi the second-most valuable dinosaur fossil ever sold at auction, behind Gus, a Tyrannosaurus rex that fetched $50.1 million at Sotheby's in July. A Stegosaurus named Apex sold for $44.6 million in 2024.
BBC News
Anadolu Agency
Research published last year concluded that Nanotyrannus was a distinct genus rather than a juvenile T. rex, citing more than 150 anatomical differences, including longer forelimbs, larger hand claws and narrower, blade-like teeth.
BBC News
GB News
Montana rancher Jodi Pierson discovered the skeleton in 2019 on her privately owned land in Garfield County, near the town of Jordan, in the Hell Creek Formation. Commercial paleontologist Clayton Phipps led the team that excavated the fossil.
The Guardian
Anadolu Agency
The mounted skeleton measures about 19.6 feet long and 9.6 feet tall, comprising roughly 191 fossil bone elements and a nearly complete skull. Sotheby's said bone development indicates the animal was an adult, and the fossil is about 70% complete.
CNN
The Times of India
The Times (UK)

Sources Split

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CENTER

RIGHT

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ESTAB

The Spin

Narrative A

Fossils have earned a spot alongside fine art and rare cars as a serious asset class, and the bidding war proves it. Blowing past the high estimate by more than five times shows real buyers, real demand and real competition. Private money chasing these finds funds more digging and pulls additional rare specimens out of the dirt before erosion destroys them.

Rubén Domínguez Ibar on X

Narrative B

Letting a one-of-three skeleton vanish into a private vault robs science of a specimen that just rewrote the T. rex family tree. No museum or university can compete with eight-figure bids, so the public loses twice — on research and on the wonder these bones spark in kids. Rare fossils belong on public display, open to study, rather than locked away in storage.