A $44.6 Million Dinosaur - And Some of Its Bones Are Fake

When Sotheby's opened bidding on a Stegosaurus skeleton in July 2024, they expected to fetch somewhere between four and six million dollars. They ended up with more than seven times that - in about 15 minutes of bidding.

Dug Up Near a Town Called Dinosaur

Commercial paleontologist Jason Cooper discovered the specimen in May 2022 on his own private land near the town of Dinosaur, Colorado - a small community in Moffat County whose streets bear names like Brontosaurus Boulevard. Excavation took until October 2023. The skeleton measures 11 feet tall and 27 feet long, making it the largest known Stegosaurus fossil ever recovered. It dates to the Late Jurassic period, roughly 150 million years ago, and shows signs of advanced age and arthritis - but no combat or predation injuries.

254 Real Bones - and 65 That Are Not

A complete Stegosaurus would have 319 bones. Apex has all 319 on display - but 254 are original fossilized bone recovered during excavation, while the other 65 were 3D-printed or hand-sculpted to fill the gaps. It is a detail most museum visitors never think about: the skeleton they are looking at is partly reconstruction. Sotheby's described Apex as "the most complete and best-preserved Stegosaurus specimen of its size ever discovered."

Fifteen Minutes, $44.6 Million

On July 17, 2024, bidding on Apex at Sotheby's New York lasted about 15 minutes. The hammer came down at $44.6 million - a record for any fossil ever sold at auction. The previous record was $31.8 million for a T. rex skeleton nicknamed Stan, sold in 2020. The anonymous buyer was later identified as Kenneth C. Griffin, founder and CEO of the hedge fund Citadel.

Now at the American Museum of Natural History

Griffin loaned Apex to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The skeleton went on public display in December 2024 inside the Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation, where it is scheduled to remain for four years. Griffin also funded a new paleontology postdoctoral fellowship to support ongoing research into Stegosaurus biology using the specimen.