by A rare dinosaur fossil from Deinonychusthe species that inspired the appearance and behavior of the fearsome velociraptor in the “Jurassic Park” movies, it just sold for a whopping $12.4 million at auction.
The 10-foot-long (3-meter) skeleton, unearthed in Montana in 2015, includes 126 fossilized bones from Deinonychus antirrhopus dating from between 115 million and 108 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period, according to Christie’swhich held the auction on May 12.
American paleontologist Barnum Brown discovered the first Deinonychus fossils in 1931, and subsequent descriptions of the animal so astonished Michael Crichton, the novelist behind the “Jurassic Park” series, that he renamed the animal dinosaur What velociraptora well-known turkey-sized relative Deinonychus from Mongolia, because I thought velociraptorthe name of was “more dramatic.”
But was it really? Deinonychus It’s a pretty metal name for those who know what it means: “terrible claw” in Greek, a fitting moniker for an athletic, sharp-toothed carnivore that likely used its sickle-shaped claws to slash and disembowel prey. However, even the paleontologist who named Deinonychus in 1969, John Ostrom of Yale University later acknowledged in an interview with The New York Times that “most people don’t understand Greek” and probably didn’t appreciate the ferocity of the dinosaur’s real name.
Related: Stan, the most expensive tyrannosaurus rex ever sold, has finally been found
Thanks to Crichton’s rebranding, when fans saw the dinosaurs they were named “velociraptors” in “Jurassic Park”, they were actually watching the film’s performance of Deinonychus.
However, moviegoers aren’t the only ones in love with the paleo-beast; paleontologists too, and many were dismayed to see an anonymous buyer take over a superb Deinonychus sample. Individuals who buy fossils are not required to share their purchases with scientists; even buyers who initially opted to display fossils in museums can withdraw them at any time, meaning scientists won’t be able to confirm the findings of any colleague who may have briefly studied such specimens.
“Deinonychus it is not a common fossil species by any means: its sample size is nowhere near that of large, easier-to-conserve species like tyrannosaurus rex (which isn’t tall to begin with), so to see a really good specimen like that being sold is completely confusing and infuriating – it should have been taken to a museum, not the auctioneer’s deck,” said Thomas Carr, a vertebrate paleontologist and associate professor of biology at Carthage College in Wisconsin, who was not involved in the fossil or the auction, told WordsSideKick.com in an email.
It should be noted that this particular Deinonychus The skeleton was missing its skull and many other bones, so the preparators filled in the missing parts with casts. “It’s hard to imagine how such a small dinosaur skeleton, without a skull!, sold for three times the low price for tyrannosaurus rexwhich is about $5 million, Carr said.
the auctioneer Deinonychus The specimen is nicknamed Hector, after the legendary Trojan warrior from Homer’s epic poem, “The Iliad.” According to Christie’s, Hector “is the most complete skeleton of his species ever found.” It is probable that Hector and his companions Deinonychus predators hunted in packs in what is now western North America, subduing their prey with their deadly talons.
“It is believed that in order to use the claw with the greatest degree of success, Deinonychus it would have stood on one leg, holding the target with its long arms, and impaled its prey with a powerful kick,” according to Christie’s description.
After the 2015 excavation, Hector was put on display at the Natural History Museum of Denmark in the “King of the Dinosaurs” exhibit, which ran from June 2020 to December 2021 and featured Hector along with five other species. of dinosaurs, including tyrannosaurus rex. Nevertheless, Deinonychus never met a tyrannosaurus rex in real life; the latter lived from about 68 million to 66 million years ago, long after Deinonychus went extinct.
Hector is one of many dinosaur fossils that have been hit the auction block in recent years. In 1997, the most complete tyrannosaurus rex registered skeleton, nicknamed Sue, sold for about $8.3 million ($14.9 million in today’s dollars) to the Field Museum in Chicago, which relied on private donors to help raise the funds. In 2020, the most expensive dinosaur ever sold at auction: are the tyrannosaurus rex of South Dakota — sold for $31.8 million and is now in abu dhabiawaiting the grand opening in 2025 of a Natural History Museum.
Originally published on Live Science.
