A restored skeleton of the iguanodon dinosaur is set to be auctioned on October 20 in Paris, France for about $500,00.
Auctioneer Alexandre Giquello said because of the skeleton size of the dinosaur, it can be displayed in a living room, according to Reuters.
The fossilized ancient reptile named "Zephyr" is 4.2 feet high and 9.8 long, compared to the other huge dinosaur fossils that were sold at earlier auctions.
Zephyr was discovered in 2019 during a road-building in Colorado, the United States.
Not everyone is delighted that these fossilized specimens are taken ownership of by private individuals for the sake of display rather than handing them over to museums.
University of Edinburgh paleontologist Steve Brusatte told Insider, "Another week, another dinosaur." He added that the dinosaur auction became a trendy culture for the wealthy which he hopes will pass.
The Dinosaur Auction Trend
Zephyr is not the first dinosaur that is to be an item for auction. In Christie's Auction House, "Hector," a deinonychus dinosaur was sold for $12.4 million in May, according to an Insider report. "Hector" is classified as a carnivorous raptor that lived around 110 million years in the past. It is the inspiration behind Jurassic Park's velociraptors standing 1.5 feet tall.
In 2020, a fossilized Tyrannosaurus Rex named "Stan" was auctioned to an anonymous buyer in Christie's Auction House, in New York for $32 million. Stan was the most expensive skeletal dinosaur ever sold.
Brusatte challenged potential buyers, that if they were wealthy enough to buy the dino bones, why not donate them to a museum that can be educational to future generations?
The Fate of Auctioned Fossils
The year 1997 was the last time a complete T-rex got auctioned when the Chicago Museum of Natural History bought a skeleton named Sue for $8.36 million. Stan would have stood 13 feet in height and 11 inches in width and weighed nearly 7.26 metric tons. The T-rex's teeth are 11 inches long and the other skeletal traits suggest that Stan was male.
A paleontologist named Stan Sacrison found the carnivorous dinosaur's fossils at Hell Creek Formation in South Dakota in 1987.
Stan's age was determined by researchers from the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research, and they found out that Stan is 67 million years old.
Aside from being the largest, Stan has the most unique trait in his bones, his skull is wholly in place and well-preserved.
The Tyrannosaurus' bones showed some scars in the lower jaw and show in his spinal cord, which was severed and might lead him to death.
On the other hand, Zephyr the iguanodon was restored by a team of Italian paleontologists. Iguanodon is a herbivorous dinosaur that was found in the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous era (which was 161.2 million to 99.6 million years ago) in the wide region of North America, North Africa, Europe, Australia, and Asia, according to Britannica.
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