Owning one of the world’s largest Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons may soon become a reality. But there’s a huge “if” factor. The buyer should be willing to spend between $20 million and $30 million.A giant T. rex fossil nicknamed “Gus” will be sold at auction house Sotheby’s in New York on July 14. Measuring 38 feet (11.6 m) long and approximately 12.5 feet (3.8 m) tall, this specimen is one of the largest and most complete T. rex skeletons ever discovered. Sotheby’s has set the starting bid at $19 million, while the auction house estimates the final sale price could reach $30 million.If achieved, it would be one of the highest prices ever paid for a dinosaur fossil at auction.
A giant creature hidden under the cattle shed
The fossil is named for the late Gary “Gus” Licking, a South Dakota cattleman who spent years finding small fossil fragments on his 6,500-acre property. Believing that the scattered bones pointed to something much larger underground, he was eventually proven right.Excavations began in 2021 when commercial paleontology company Theropoda Expeditions began digging at a Harding County farm. Work continued for three consecutive summers until 2023. Licking died about a year after excavations began and the dinosaur was never fully uncovered. His widow Dana Licking has continued to follow the project as researchers have completed the reconstruction.The finished skeleton contains 183 fossilized bones and is about 63 percent complete by bone count, making it one of the most complete T. rex specimens ever offered for public sale.
years of hard work
Retrieving Gus was only the beginning. After excavation, the fossil required several years of cleaning, cataloguing, identification, and assembly before it could stand as a reconstructed dinosaur.The entire project took about five years, including three years of excavation and research and then two years of preparing the fossils for display.Thomas Heitkamp, president of Theropoda Expeditions, described the challenge of reconstructing the prehistoric hunter.“It really feels like tackling the world’s hardest puzzle, except we have to find all the pieces first,” Heitkamp said.He added: “All those bones that were separated over 67 million years that we can now, almost magically, put back together.”Dinosaurs roamed North America during the Maastrichtian era, approximately 72 million to 66 million years ago.
Why is Gus different?
According to Sotheby’s, Gus attracted attention because of its size, condition and level of preservation.Cassandra Hatton, Sotheby’s global head of science and natural history, said it was the “completeness, quality, size, (and) preservation” that made Gus stand out as a viable auction item.He also discussed the special work involved in recovering dinosaur fossils.“When we talk about dinosaur fossils, I think it’s really important for people to understand that they don’t come whole out of the ground,” Hatton told Reuters.He added: “It takes highly specialized, careful, hard-working, skilled people to recognize what they’re looking at, to tell the difference between a piece of rock and a piece of this animal.”The fossil is estimated to be worth $20 million to $30 million, the highest pre-sale estimate ever placed on a dinosaur skeleton. The record for the most expensive dinosaur sold at auction is still held by a Stegosaurus skeleton known as Apex, which fetched $44 million at Sotheby’s two years ago.
Growing market for dinosaur fossils
Auction houses are experiencing increasing demand for rare dinosaur fossils from museums, private collectors and wealthy buyers around the world.“The market for dinosaurs today has become much broader and broader than most people imagine,” Hatton, who also serves as vice president of Sotheby’s, told Artnet. “Interest now comes not only from US-based museums and private collectors, but also from major international museums, foundations, and individuals creating their own destinations. What unites them is not a single profile, but a shared respect and curiosity for the objects.”Proponents of commercial fossil sales argue that private funding helps uncover specimens that might otherwise remain buried.For his part, Hatton told the Australian Financial Review, “These sales are extremely important because they are helping us find fossils that would otherwise be lost to everyone.”
The debate over who should own the past
The growing commercial market for dinosaur fossils has also caused concern among paleontologists and museum experts.Some researchers argue that rising auction prices make it difficult for public museums and scientific institutions to obtain important fossils. Others warn that high-price sales could encourage fossil fraud or reduce opportunities for scientific study if key specimens disappear into private collections. Whether Gus ultimately becomes a museum centerpiece or joins a private collection will be decided when bidding opens on July 14.