Stegosaurus sells for almost $45 million at Sotheby’s auction, the most for any dinosaur fossil

Sotheby’s is A stegosaurus named ApexIt was billed as “the finest stegosaurus ever to come on the market” and sold for a record-breaking $45 million.

The price was significantly higher than Sotheby’s estimate of $4 million to $6 million, and the exact price for the fossil, a stegosaurus skeleton, was $44.6 million, breaking the previous record for a dinosaur fossil sold at auction.

Sotheby’s Said The auction ended Wednesday morning, but the identity of the buyer was not immediately disclosed.

“Apex lived up to its name today, inspiring bidders from around the world to become the most valuable fossil ever sold at auction,” Cassandra Hutton, Sotheby’s global head of science and popular culture, said in a statement after the auction.

“This sale has been years in the making and we have worked closely with Jason Cooper throughout, from the moment it was discovered at Dinosaur Colorado to the sale in New York,” she added, referring to the paleontologist who discovered the specimen.

According to Sotheby’s, the iconic skeleton is about 161 million years old, stands 11 feet tall, and measures about 27 feet from nose to tail. The auction house’s listing says Apex is “mounted in an aggressive pose on a custom steel framework.”

The fossil was excavated on private land near the town of Dinosaur in Moffat County, Colorado, between 2022 and 2023.

According to Sotheby’s, the nearly intact remains of one of the world’s most famous dinosaurs also show signs of arthritis, suggesting that Apex lived a long life.

Apex isn’t the first dinosaur to be sold at auction: In 1997, a Tyrannosaurus rex fossil sold for $8.4 million, and in 2020, another T. rex skeleton sold for $32 million. Two years later, in 2022, Sotheby’s sold a Gorgosaurus skeleton for more than $6 million.

— The Associated Press contributed to this report