Going once, going twice, sold?
The largest stegosaurus fossil ever found is heading to auction next month with an estimated value of up to $6 million.
Known as “Apex,” the fossil excavated near Colorado’s Morrison Formation, close to the town of Dinosaur, in 2023, according to the Sotheby’s auction house.
A part of the armored dinosaur was first discovered on the nearby property of commercial paleontologist Jason Cooper, according to the auction house. In total, it measures 11 feet tall and 20 feet long and includes 247 fossil bones. The dinosaur is believed to be between 146 million and 161 million years old.
Sotheby’s will auction the specimen on July 17 with an estimated value of $4 million to $6 million in New York. Sotheby’s sold a 200-pound Tyrannosaurus rex head in 1997 for $8.3 million.
However, the sale of fossilized remains of dinosaurs is met with quite a bit of controversy, specifically whether or not dinosaur fossils should be sold to private collectors.
Paul David Polly, a professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at Indiana University, said auctions often put the focus on finding complete dinosaurs versus studying the surrounding environment, giving an incomplete picture of the specimen.
“[An auction] fetishizes the complete skeletons of dinosaurs over a good careful scientific study,” said David Polly
Additionally, at the hands of private collectors, fossils may not be available to the public which prevents scientists from studying them.
“Because [the fossils] are in a private collection, they can’t contribute to the diversity of things we know about the world,” said Canadian paleontologist Greg Funston.
Regardless, it is legal to sell fossils that were found on private property in the U.S. Other countries like Canada, Brazil and South Africa restrict the sale and export of fossils found in those countries.
Spencer G. Lucas, an American paleontologist with the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, said commercial paleontology can preserve fossils for science and education.
“My hope would be that [the fossils] would be available for scientific research,” he said.
Prior to its sale on July 17, Apex will be on exhibition at Sotheby’s galleries in New York, the auction house says. The exhibition will be free and open to the public.