77-million-year- Old Dinosaur Skeleton, Gorgosaurus Sells For $6m

A gorgosaurus skeleton that belonged to a tyrannosaurus rex relative and lived about 77 million years ago was auctioned off for more than $6 million.

The ancient skeleton, which was found in the US state of Montana in 2018, sold at Sotheby's natural history auction on Thursday for slightly under $6.07 million, according to Sotheby's.

According to Sotheby's, there are only 20 known gorgosaurus specimens, and this one is the only one that is known to be for sale to the general public. The majority of the other specimens were discovered in Canada, where export restrictions strictly forbid private sales.

The auction house did not say who purchased the skeleton, which measures nearly 3m (10 feet) tall and just under 6.7m (22 feet) long.

The gorgosaurus, whose name means “dreadful lizard”, lived approximately 77 million years ago in what is now the western region of North America, Sotheby’s said.

But the sale has angered scientists, who say allowing dinosaur specimens to be sold to private buyers could hurt their ability to study them.

“There are not very many specimens of gorgosaurus. All the others are in museums. And one more being sold, you might say, ‘Oh well it’s only one.’ But if there’s only a few, that’s a lot of information that we lose,” said Jessica Theodor, president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.