In mid-September, it was announced by Christie's in New York that the skeleton of a 40-foot dinosaur nicknamed Stan will be auctioned in the city this month.
The specimen was discovered more than 30 years ago in 1987 near Buffalo, South Dakota, which has 188 bones and took the paleontologists three years to excavate and reconstruct from the Black Hills Geological Research Institute where it was once exhibited since its discovery.
On October 6, it was sold at a record-setting amount of $31.8 million at an auction, which is nearly four times the price of the previous highest dinosaur sold at an auction. Stan is considered to be one of the world's most complete specimens of t-rex fossils ever found.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 17: A Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur fossil skeleton is displayed in a gallery at Christie’s auction house on September 17, 2020, in New York City. Owned by the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research in South Dakota, the skeleton is known as “Stan” for the amateur paleontologist Stan Sacrison who found the initial bones in 1987. The bones were discovered in a remote area that spans North and South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana. Stan, with an estimated value between $6 million and $8 million, is considered one of the largest and most complete examples of a T-Rex, with 188 original bones. The skeleton will be auctioned as part of Christie’s 20th Century evening auction on Oct. 6 in New York. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
"Stan" the T-Rex
In 1987, amateur paleontologist Stan Sacrison came across the remains of the Tyrannosaurus Rex in South Dakota. Hence, experts have named the fossil after him.
It took more than 30,000 hours for paleontologists from the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research in South Dakota to excavate and assemble Stan's skeleton, comprising 188 bones. They have taken casts for museums who wanted a copy of Stan, which they believed died at only 20 years old.
Stan's price has gone almost four times the amount of the dinosaur nicknamed Sue, which was sold at $8.4 million in October 1997, the most expensive dinosaur specimen sold before Stan. It was auctioned at Sotheby's to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.
The bid for this exceptional T-rex reached $9.8 million in just two minutes of the auction and then went up after 14 minutes in which only three bidders were left. Finally, the last price for Stan reached $27.5 million, plus costs and commissions.
The auction happened in New York, where the expert assessor is, but lines were also open in Hongkong and London, so Christie's specialists could still take calls from collectors in those areas.
Stan stands at 13 feet tall and 40 feet long and has a punctured skull and neck that indicates it fought with its fellow T-rexes. Some 67 million years ago, Stan would have weighed around eight tons when he was still alive.
Based on existing laws, specimens of dinosaurs are only allowed to be sold if it was discovered on private land, which is the case with Stan.
Fossils of T-Rex discovered
The first specimen of Tyrannosaurus rex fossil was discovered over a century ago in 1902 in Hell Creek, Montana, by Barnum Brown, a famous fossil hunter. Since then, only 50 T-Rex fossils have been discovered, including Stan.
Six years after the first discovery, the second T-rex fossil is yet again discovered by Brown, which was nearly complete at Big Dry Creek, Montana. According to records, they blasted the rock located around the specimen with dynamite revealing a "magnificent specimen" and a "perfect skull" T-rex fossil.
Currently, this fossil known as AMNH 5027 is displayed in the Museum's Hall of Saurischian Dinosaurs. Additionally, the fossil is also reproduced in the new exhibition T rex: The Ultimate Predator.
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