Christie’s auction house sold three rare dinosaur fossils, including a pair of allosaurus and a stegosaurus, for £12.4 million ($15.7 million). The fossils, which date back to the Jurassic era (145-157 million years old), exceeded their asking prices, with the allosaurus duo selling for £8.1 million ($10.2 million) and the stegosaurus fetching £4.2 million ($5.3 million).
The sale of these ancient specimens was made by Interprospekt, a Swiss-German company that specializes in excavations, exhibitions, and educational programs connected to natural history and geology.
Among the fossils sold were two allosaurus skeletons – one juvenile and one adult – which suggested that these dinosaurs may have been social creatures. The stegosaurus, often seen as an imposing herbivore with its distinctive back plates, was actually a plant-eater that used its plates for protection rather than hunting.
While Christie’s sale did not break the record set by Sotheby’s in June 2022 when a similar stegosaurus specimen sold for $44 million, it still marked a significant achievement for the auction house and the dinosaur fossil market.
Source: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/christies-allosaurus-dinosaurs-auction-result-2586343