Rare Nanotyrannus skeleton 'Jodi' sells for $47.3m at New York auction

A rare skeleton of a Nanotyrannus, a smaller relative of the Tyrannosaurus rex, has sold at auction in New York for $47.3 million. Auction house Sotheby's said the price makes the skeleton, named 'Jodi', the second most valuable dinosaur ever sold at auction.

Sotheby's said in a statement that the skeleton sold on Tuesday after a twelve-minute bidding battle in which six bidders competed online and over the phones, before ultimately selling on the phone.

Sotheby's had initially estimated the skeleton would sell for $6 million to $9 million. The final result was far above that estimate. The buyer has not yet been identified publicly.

The skeleton was unveiled at a Manhattan auction earlier this month. It was discovered by Jodi Pierson in 2019 on her privately owned land in the Hell Creek Formation in Garfield County, Montana, near the town of Jordan, and was named 'Jodi' after the person who found the remains.

According to Sotheby's, the skeleton measures 19.6 feet long from nose to tail and around 9.6 feet tall on the armature, and comprises approximately 191 fossil bone elements.

In a statement on Tuesday, Cassandra Hatton, vice-chairman and Worldwide Head of Science & Natural History at Sotheby's, thanked the team who assisted in the efforts to excavate and save 'Jodi'. She said their passion and expertise had been fundamental to Jodi's story and that the result was a recognition of that work.

Sotheby's said 'Jodi' is one of only three substantial Nanotyrannus skeletons known to science, and the first to come to market since the genus was confirmed last fall. Judging from its overall size and degree of bone development, the skeleton belonged to an adult individual.

Sotheby's described the Nanotyrannus as a fast, highly specialized carnivorous tyrannosaurid that lived alongside Tyrannosaurus rex at the end of the Cretaceous, about 67 million years ago. It said the genus, previously hypothesized by some to be adolescent T rex, has been shown to have over 150 morphological differences from its much larger cousin.

Some scientists have criticized auctions like these for potentially hiding away specimens. Linda Ivany, a professor of evolutionary paleoecology at Syracuse University, said she believes such amazing fossils should stay in the public sphere for scientists to study, for children to be awed and inspired, and for everyone to learn from.