{"id":29714,"date":"2025-06-16T12:00:16","date_gmt":"2025-06-16T12:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=29714"},"modified":"2025-06-16T12:24:37","modified_gmt":"2025-06-16T12:24:37","slug":"sothebys-to-auction-a-ceratosaurus-with-millions-and-more-on-the-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=29714","title":{"rendered":"Sotheby\u2019s to Auction a Ceratosaurus, With Millions and More on the Line"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The 150-million-year-old specimen is valued at up to $6 million. Some paleontologists worry this auction and earlier ones are driving fossil market speculators.<\/p>\n

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In 1999, Brock Sisson was 16 years old and working at the Museum of Ancient Life in Utah. He was handed a box and warned not to drop it. Inside sat the upper jaw and nose horn of a young Ceratosaurus, a 150-million-year-old predatory dinosaur.<\/p>\n

In July, Sotheby\u2019s will auction off that specimen, estimating its value at $4 million to $6 million. The sale arrives about a year after the Sotheby\u2019s auction of \u201cApex\u201d the stegosaurus,<\/a> which sold to the hedge fund billionaire Kenneth Griffin for $45 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With the looming ceratosaur sale, paleontologists of both the academic and commercial varieties are expressing concern that another multimillion-dollar auction will distort the fossil marketplace. Driving more speculation, they worry, could further spike the already rising prices of fossil digs and lead to the duping of investors.<\/p>\n

Experts at Sotheby\u2019s respond that such sales \u2014 by attracting the interest of potential donors \u2014 inject more philanthropy in the field of paleontology.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Prospectors discovered the ceratosaur, which the sellers have chosen not to nickname, in 1996 near Bone Cabin Quarry, Wyo. It is only the fourth Ceratosaurus skeleton ever found, and the only juvenile. The 10-foot-long animal is notable for its complete skull, made up of 57 \u201cpaper thin, super delicate\u201d bones, Mr. Sisson said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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An X-ray of the specimen\u2019s skull.<\/span>Sotheby’s<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The 150-million-year-old specimen is valued at up to $6 million. Some paleontologists worry this auction and earlier ones are driving fossil market speculators.In 1999, Brock Sisson was 16 years old and working at the Museum of Ancient Life in Utah. He was handed a box and warned not to drop it. Inside sat the upper jaw and nose horn of a young Ceratosaurus, a 150-million-year-old predatory dinosaur.In July, Sotheby\u2019s will auction off that specimen, estimating its value at $4 million to $6 million. The sale arrives about a year after the Sotheby\u2019s auction of \u201cApex\u201d the stegosaurus, which sold to the hedge fund billionaire Kenneth Griffin for $45 million.With the looming ceratosaur sale, paleontologists of both the academic and commercial varieties are expressing concern that another multimillion-dollar auction will distort the fossil marketplace. Driving more speculation, they worry, could further spike the already rising prices of fossil digs and lead to the duping of investors.Experts at Sotheby\u2019s respond that such sales \u2014 by attracting the interest of potential donors \u2014 inject more philanthropy in the field of paleontology.Prospectors discovered the ceratosaur, which the sellers have chosen not to nickname, in 1996 near Bone Cabin Quarry, Wyo. It is only the fourth Ceratosaurus skeleton ever found, and the only juvenile. The 10-foot-long animal is notable for its complete skull, made up of 57 \u201cpaper thin, super delicate\u201d bones, Mr. Sisson said.An X-ray of the specimen\u2019s skull.Sotheby’sWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29716,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29714"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29717,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29714\/revisions\/29717"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}