A rare skeleton of Nanotyrannus, a smaller T. rex relative, has sold at auction at Sotheby’s in New York for $47.3 million, after a 12-minute bidding war among six contenders.
The specimen, named Jodi, is one of only three relatively complete Nanotyrannus skeletons known to science. Blowing well past an estimate of $6 to $9 million, the sale narrowly missed the auction record for a fossil, set in July with the sale of Gus — an exceptional T. rex skeleton that went under the hammer for $50.1 million.
