NANOTYRANNUS SKELETON FETCHES $47.3M AT NEW YORK AUCTION

A Nanotyrannus skeleton named Jodi sold for $47.3m (£35.5m) at a Sotheby’s auction in New York on Tuesday. Six bidders competed for 12 minutes before a telephone bidder secured it, according to the auction house. Sotheby’s called Jodi the “second most valuable dinosaur ever sold at auction”. The buyer’s identity has not been disclosed. Pre-sale expectations placed its price between $6m and at least $9m.

Jodi Pierson found the remains in 2019 on her land in Montana’s Hell Creek Formation, near the town of Jordan. Commercial palaeontologist Clayton Phipps later excavated the skeleton. Sotheby’s measured it at 19.6 feet long and about 9.6 feet tall on its mount. The auction house said it contains approximately 191 fossil bone elements, including a nearly complete skull. Organisers displayed Jodi as a young Tyrannosaurus rex at London’s Frieze Masters art fair in 2023.

US researchers confirmed in 2025 that the skeleton belonged to the distinct Nanotyrannus genus. Palaeontologist Megan Jacobs of the University of Portsmouth described Nanotyrannus as smaller and more slender than Tyrannosaurus rex, with blade-like teeth. Both lived about 67 million years ago. Sotheby’s says scientists know of only three substantial Nanotyrannus skeletons. The sale follows Sotheby’s $50.1m auction of a Tyrannosaurus rex named Gus in July and has renewed debate among scientists over private ownership of dinosaur fossils.