Welcome to Jurassic Park! Prehistory enthusiasts have reason to be excited: a tyrannosaurus rex skeleton will be auctioned on April 18 in Switzerland. Called “Trinity”, the complete specimen of almost 3.9 meters in height and 11.6 meters in length is estimated between 6.11 and 8.15 million euros.
“A very low estimate”, warned the expert in natural history of the house Koller, Christian Link, while we are witnessing a real enthusiasm of buyers for this type of relics. Trinity “is one of the most spectacular extant T-rex skeletons, a well-preserved and brilliantly restored fossil” according to the auction house.
Three specimens collected
It will be “the third time in the world and the first time in Europe” that a T-rex skeleton has been put up for sale according to the Koller house. “It is an exceptional opportunity to acquire a fossil of such quality,” said expert Christian Link, recalling that most specimens of this type are found in museums.
Trinity’s skeleton was assembled for more than half using bones from three different T-rex specimens found in the United States between 2008 and 2013, in Montana and Wyoming. The species lived 67 million years ago. According to a study published in 2021 by the scientific journal Nature, only 32 adult T-rex skeletons have been found so far in the world.
In May, a skeleton of Deinonychus antirrhopus, which had inspired the Velociraptor of the mythical “Jurassic Park” by Steven Spielberg (1993), was sold for 12.4 million dollars, including costs, to an Asian client. The benchmark remains a tyrannosaurus rex, which left in 2020 for $31.8 million.