If you ever wanted to own an actual T.rex and not just a toy, you now have a chance.
But it's going to cost you some bones.Millions of them.The Tyrannosaurus rex fossil known as "Gus" will go up for auction Tuesday morning at Sotheby's New York City office.
The starting bid for the dinosaur is $19 million and the auction house estimates it could sell for $20 to $30 million.Gus was found in Harding County, S.D., on private land in 2021, according to Sotheby's.The T.
rex skeleton, which is 38 feet long and 12 and half feet tall, is believed to be from the late Cretaceous period from about 67 million years ago."Judging from the overall size and degree of bone development it can be determined that Gus' skeleton belonged to a very large, robust, adult individual," the auction house said in the listing.Thomas Heitkamp, president of Theropoda Expeditions, the company that excavated the site, said in a Sotheby's video about the discovery that nearly a thousand pieces were collected.The creature is named after the owner of the ranch where it was discovered, Gary "Gus" Licking.He died during the excavation process, which ran through 2023, and was not able to see Gus fully assembled, according to Cassandra Hatton of Sotheby's."Gary had for years roamed around his 6,500 acre property and seeing T.
rex teeth and little bits of fossils and such, and he realized that there was probably something really important under the ground," Hatton said in the video.Gus is one of the largest and most complete T.rex specimens ever found, according to Sotheby's.It's not the first time dinosaur bones have been for sale to the highest bidder.The first auction for a dinosaur was held by Sotheby's in 1997.
The creature, a T.rex named Sue, was purchased by a few large companies for the Field Museum in Chicago.
It went for $8.4 million.In 2024, Apex the stegosaurus sold for $44.6 million, the most ever for a dinosaur fossil.It was purchased by billionaire investor Ken Griffin, who loaned it t...