Dinosaur enthusiasts can purchase their own dinosaur skeleton if they're willing to spend at least $3 million on the compete set of bones.
Sotheby's will begin a live auction for a 27-foot-long stegosaurus skeleton called Apex on July 17 at 10 am.
The opening bid for the skeleton is set at $3 million, but the auction house estimated its value to be between $4 million and $6 million.
Stegosaurus skeletons are 'incredibly rare,' and there were only eight or nine known complete sets of the dinosaur's bones in the world, according to Sotheby's Global Head of Science and Popular Culture, Cassandra Hatton to Alternative Press.
Hatton added that a stegosaurus like the one Sotheby's got its hands on has never been sold at auction before, and the house will learn its actual worth at a later date.
Sotheby's will begin a live auction for a 27-foot-long stegosaurus skeleton called Apex on July 17 at 10:00
The skeleton, which is around 161 million years old, will have an opening bid of $3 million. Sotheby's estimated its valued between $4 million and $6 million
Paleontologist Jason Cooper found 161-million-year-old Apex on his private land back in May 2022.
He first found pieces of fossils sticking up from the ground, before finding severa; stegosaurus bones.
Cooper and his team spent two years excavating the fossils, which included removing them, separating them from surrounding rock and dirt, gluing the broken pieces together and creating a recognizable stegosaurus skeleton.
The dinosaur expert did luck out since the fossils were in one location with the dinosaur's remains positioned in 'common death pose for animals.'
Based on the findings, the dinosaur's tail was likely curled up underneath its body.
Cooper and Sotheby's collaborated with each other shortly after his discovery so that the auction house could 'document the process' to guarantee the 'highest standards and transparency,' according to CBS News.
The skeleton is complete with 254 bone elements and additional 3D-printed and sculpted elements.
Sotheby's concluded that the stegosaurus skeleton belonged to a large and robust reptile that had a long life and arthritis.
It also showed no signs of injuries related to fighting or evidence of other creatures eating its body parts post-mortem.
After the stegosaurus was shipped to New York from Colorado, professionals did extra work to ensure it was in great shape for the auction.
Paleontologist Jason Cooper collaborated with employees at Sotheby's after he found more than one stegosaurus bone on his Colorado property two years ago
Based on the findings, the dinosaur's tail was likely curled up underneath its body, which is 'common death pose for animals'
Professionals have since mounted the stegosaurus skeleton in an aggressive pose on custom armature.
Before it was mounted, professionals fitted each bone with holding brackets to ensure it would be safely secured before and after the auction.
The steel leveling in the skeleton's metal base also plays a part in how it will be secured to any floor and not rock back and forth or side to side.
The skeleton's potential owner can enjoy the pivoting joints installed on the fossil, which control whether the skull and neck are positioned on the right or left.
The fossilized remains are 30 percent larger than Sophie - another stegosaurus skeleton, which is on public display at the Natural History Museum in London.
Cooper has had a long history of contributing fossils to Sotheby's and museums worldwide.
Professionals fitted each stegosaurus bone with holding brackets to ensure it would be safely secured before and after the auction
The debate over dinosaur fossil auctions is one that Hatton has 'heard a lot' over the years.
'When you have a scientifically important specimen, the museums usually show up and find donors to bid on their behalf, or they bid themselves,' Hatton told CBS News.
'Most of the people I work with are donating specimens to museums or loaning them to museums; they understand the significance and importance of these specimens.'
Previous dinosaur fossil auctions have already caused backlash due to prices.
Sotheby's had previously sold a Tyrannosaurus Rex head for $6 million despite its $20 million value, and a dinosaur fossil was sold at an auction house for more than $2 million despite members of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology requesting to halt the sale in 2018.
Christie's had planned to auction off a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton in 2022, but it was withdrawn a few days before the Hong Kong event due to uncertain authenticity.
As of now, Stan, the world's most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex, holds the record for highest selling price at $31.8 million.
'Science cannot compete with private companies [or wealthy buyers] in terms of getting their hands on a specimen,' senior researcher Diego C. García-Bellido told The Washington Post last May.
'I know how strapped for cash, in general, museums are. … Five or 6 million dollars is the sort of money that almost no museum in the world can afford to pay.'
