Nidhish Waghmare
The largest stegosaurus skeleton of dinosaurs named Apex was sold for $44.6 million at a Sotheby’s auction in New York City. The most expensive fossil, it is estimated to be about 150 million years old and about 11 ft tall with a 26ft long nose to tail.
Can dinosaur bones be sold?
Dinosaur bones can be sold and it’s worth depending upon the place they were found. For instance, if a fossil is collected on federal land, it may be considered as public property and must be handed over to the museums for the public. However if they are found on private land like Stan they can be sold.
Thomas Carr, a palaeontologist at Carthage College, explained that he regrets including Stan in few of his studies
“In the end, I would contribute to the successful sales pitch of the fossil..along with the other 45 scientific publications on Stan,” Carr said.
“We shouldn’t have touched it with a 10-foot pole.
About Apex
Apex, the largest plant-eating Stegosaurus, has made a history by being sold for $44.5 mln to an anonymous buyer “ Apex was born in America and is going to stay in America” stated by the buyer. In 2022 Apex was discovered by chance by a Jason Cooper, a Palaeontologist near the town of Dinosaur in the western US state of Colorado.
The Fossil is now the most valuable fossil as it was taken by seven bidders and its pre-sale estimates by more than 11 times. While a previous dinosaur fossil was sold for $31.8 mln in 2020, a Tyrannosaurus Rex named Stan.
Worth of a dinosaur bone
Now selling ancient fossils is becoming more common as people like to be ostentatious and are ready to pay any price for an ancient burial. Its worth depends upon the place it is found, for example, a 76 million year old Gorgosaurus skeleton was sold for $6.1 million to the highest bidder.
According to MoneyMade, investors like to invest in dinosaur bones just like shares, as they believe that buying a portion of bones will help to make a large amount of money during the auction. For example, Triceratops Prorsus Skull was sold in shares. In addition people also love to have conspicuous items that make them different from others and obviously an old ancient fossil can make them snob, as in 2021 an American media personality Logan Paul bought a dinosaur leg at $40,000 on his 26th birthday as a present just to give himself.
Speaking of actual worth of the bones, as per scientists it is beyond the measures and when you think of all the research and discoveries made by studying a single skeleton such as Stan, scientific access to all privately owned could be innovative.
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