Dino skeleton that looks like mini T. rex sells for a giant US$47 million

A dinosaur that looks like a miniature T. rex is now one of the world’s most expensive fossils.

The rare skeleton of a Nanotyrannus – recently confirmed to be a distant cousin of Tyrannosaurus rex, not just a young specimen – sold for US$47.3 million to a mystery buyer at auction in New York on Tuesday, according to Sotheby’s.

The auction house had expected it to fetch anywhere from US$6 to US$9 million.

The blockbuster price tag for “Jodi”, as the skeleton is nicknamed, makes it the second-priciest set of dinosaur bones ever sold. This summer, a T. rex fossil known as “Gus” sold for a record US$50.1 million at Sotheby’s.

The new owner of “Jodi” has, for now, chosen to remain anonymous after outbidding five other prospective buyers online and by phone during the roughly 12-minute live auction, Sotheby’s said.

A Nanotyrannus was about half the length of an adult T. rex, and the two creatures coexisted during the Cretaceous period some 67 million years ago.

Nanotyrannus had relatively longer forelimbs and larger hand claws, as well as more slender, bladelike teeth than its famous cousin.

“Jodi” is one of only three such skeletons known to exist. Standing 9 feet 6 inches (2.9 metres) and stretching nearly 20 feet (6 metres), it has been on display at the auction house’s upper Manhattan headquarters since earlier this month, and is considered almost 70 per cent complete.

The dinosaur is named after Jodi Pierson, the Montana rancher who discovered it on her land in 2019.

Sotheby’s, in a statement, thanked the team of professional fossil hunters whose efforts to discover and excavate the specimen were the focus of the Discovery Channel documentary series Dino Hunters in 2020.

“Their commitment to understanding and preserving this remarkable specimen has helped bring us to this moment, a testament to the fact that we can all make major contributions to science,” said Cassandra Hatton, Sotheby’s head of science and natural history.

However, some scientists have opposed such private sales, saying “Jodi” and other significant fossils should be displayed in museums or other institutions so they can be studied by researchers and viewed by the public.

Scientists for decades were not even sure whether Nanotyrannus represented a distinct type of dinosaur or merely a juvenile T. rex. But research published last year concluded that it was in fact a distinct genus of dinosaur.