Tyrannosaurus Skeleton Of T. Rex 'Cousin' To Be Auctioned On May 20

This nearly complete Tyrannosaurus bataar is set to go on auction.

By: Wynne Parry, LiveScience Senior Writer
Published: 05/14/2012 07:05 PM EDT on LiveScience

A nearly complete skeleton of a towering Tyrannosaurus bataar is set to go on auction on Sunday (May 20). The skeleton measures some 8-feet (2.4-meters) tall and 24-feet (7.3-meters) long.

This is the first full Tyrannosaurus specimen to go on auction since "Sue," a Tyrannosaurus rex, sold for $8.3 million in 1997, said David Herskowitz, director of Natural History at Heritage Auctions, the auction house conducting the sale.  

The Tyrannosaurus bataar was uncovered in the Gobi Desert roughly eight years ago and has an estimated value of $950,000. Also called Tarbosaurus bataar, this species is an Asian relative to the North American T. rex.

While the specimen's skull is 80 percent complete, the body is about 75 percent complete, Herskowitz said, adding that it is "an impeccably preserved specimen of the sort that is almost never seen on the open market." The auction is scheduled to include other fossils and minerals, including a T. bataar tooth, an akylosaur skull from the dinosaur Saichania chulsanensis, and a skeleton from a troodontid — a group of dinosaurs whose anatomy suggests they were closely related to birds.

The auction takes place at Center 548 (548 W. 22nd Street in New York City), and the specimens will be on public display before the auction, from May 17–19.

"To find any dinosaur already mounted and ready for sale is extremely rare and quite uncommon because of the amount of time, energy and money it takes to prepare a mounted specimen," Herskowitz told LiveScience. "To find a complete dinosaur of any kind on the market is really quite rare, but the rarest of them all are the theropods."

Theropods are a group of carnivorous dinosaurs that included Tyrannosaurus, Allosaurus and others bipedal meat-eaters. As top predators, they were less abundant than other species, he said.

You can follow LiveScience senior writer Wynne Parry on Twitter @Wynne_Parry. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.

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Comments

[AnnAnn]

02:40 PM on 05/19/2012

Mark Norell of the American Museum of Natural History:
"In the current catalogue Lot 49317 (skull of Saichania) and Lot 49315 (amounted Tarbosaurus skeleton) clearly were excavated in Mongolia as this is the only locality in the world where these dinosaurs are known. The copy listed in the catalog, while not mentioning Mongolia specifically (the locality is listed as Central Asia) repeatedly makes reference to the Gobi Desert and to the fact that other specimens of dinosaurs were collected in Mongolia.... There is no legal mechanism (nor has there been for over 50 years) to remove vertebrate fossil material from Mongolia. These specimens are the patrimony of the Mongolian people and should be in a museum in Mongolia. As a professional paleontologist, I am appalled that these illegally collected specimens (with no associated documents regarding provenance) are being are being sold at auction."
AND from UK Daily Mail:
"The 24ft long and 8ft high Tyrannosaurus bataar, a cousin of T-rex which lived around 80 million years ago, was found in Mongolia and acquired by the collector in 2005. AND David Herskowitz, director of natural history at Heritage Auctions in New York, said 'The specimen was found over 10 years ago in the Gobi desert and is owned by a fossil collector from Dorset."
Since there has been no legal mechanism for removing fossils from Mongolia for over 50 years, it is clear that the material is CONTRABAND and the PATRIMONY of the people of Mongolia.

[cagog]

01:23 AM on 05/16/2012

Is this person stupid, the animal is always been called Tarbosaurus bataar, not tyrannosaurus bataar, even when it was uncovered in the Gobi desert, the paleontologist called it, guess what "TARBOSAURUS BATAAR". just because it T-Rex's real cousin, doesn't mean you have to call it a tyrannosaurus, yes they do belong to the same family, but with a few difference's, tarbosaurus has a shallower snout and lower jaw and smaller teeth and less built, on the other hand, T-Rex has longer blunt teeth for crushing bone not for tearing flesh and T-Rex skull is short and deep, and its heavily built, even though their cousins, tarbosaurus is more closely related to daspletosaurus torosus. Geeeeeeeeezzzzzzz,

[onionboy]

02:56 PM on 05/15/2012

Shaking piggy bank.

[Youngblood007]

06:52 PM on 05/15/2012

lets put our two cents together