Sotheby's auction house has put up for sale the world's only known skeleton of a juvenile Ceratosaurus nasicornis, estimating it at $4-6 million. It is one of the most complete and best-preserved specimens of this dinosaur genus, writes Interesting Engineering.
This extraordinary representative of prehistoric predators is a distant relative of Tyrannosaurus rex, but faster and more agile. It is 190 cm tall and over 3 meters long. For the first time in history, Sotheby's has presented this specimen as a unique example of the genus Ceratosaurus in a fully assembled form.
The skeleton consists of 139 bone elements, including an almost completely preserved skull. Other parts are also well preserved - a nasal horn, elongated teeth, and a series of bony plates along the spine and tail.
By the way, only three finds of this dinosaur species are known. The skeleton was first found in 1996 at Bone Cabin Quarry (West), Wyoming - one of the most famous paleontological excavation sites in the United States.
The sale will be part of a series of natural history auctions that Sotheby's has been holding since 1997. Last year, the house sold the Apex skeleton for a record $45 million.
Ceratosaurus lived about 150 million years ago, during the Late Jurassic period, a time of active evolution, rising sea levels, and the breakup of the supercontinent Pangaea. At that time, both predators like Ceratosaurus and herbivorous dinosaurs like Stegosaurus and Apatosaurus flourished on Earth.
The final buyer is not yet known, but Sotheby's suggests that, like previous specimens, this skeleton will likely end up in a museum and be available to the public.