American billionaire investor, Ken Griffin, has set a new record by purchasing a 150-million-year-old, late-Jurassic stegosaurus skeleton for $44.6 million at Sotheby’s auction in New York on Wednesday, making it the most valuable fossil ever sold.
The massive 11-foot-tall skeleton, named ‘Apex’, was discovered near Dinosaur, Colorado in May 2022.
This specimen is notable for being the best-preserved and most complete stegosaurus of its size, highlighting the significance of well-preserved fossils.
Initially estimated to fetch between $4 million and $6 million, ‘Apex’ surpassed expectations.
Sotheby’s describes it as the “most complete and best-preserved Stegosaurus specimen of its size ever discovered”.
Located on private property in Moffat County, Colorado, Apex was found in May 2022 in an area renowned for its dinosaur fossil discoveries.
This region, in northwest Colorado, is close to the Utah and Wyoming borders.
Commercial paleontologist Jason Cooper completed the excavation of the skeleton in 2023. Moffat County is also home to the Dinosaur National Monument.
‘Apex’ measures 27 feet from nose to tail and stands 11 feet tall, consisting of 319 bones.
Of these, 254 are original fossils, with the rest either sculpted or 3D printed. The gender of the dinosaur remains undetermined.
Sotheby’s noted that the skeleton’s size and bone structure indicate it was a large, robust adult. Evidence of arthritis, particularly in the sacral vertebrae fusion, suggests it was mature.
The skeleton shows several fascinating diseases but no signs of post-mortem scavenging or conflict-related injuries.
Although not all dinosaurs fetch such high prices, Apex is not the first to break records.
The skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex named “Sue” sold for $8.4 million in 1997 and is now on display at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.
This record was broken in October 2020 when another T. rex skeleton, “Stan,” sold for $31.8 million and is set to be displayed at the new Abu Dhabi natural history museum opening in 2025.
