Sotheby’s to auction 150-million-year-old stegosaurus fossil: NPR

During the Jurassic period, a massive, four-legged creature with kite-like plates along its back once roamed the Earth. Now, some 150 million years later, the skeletal remains of one of them have been put up for auction.

On Wednesday, Sotheby’s will hold a live auction of the stegosaurus fossil known as “Apex.” The auction house expects the specimen to sell for $4 million to $6 million, making it one of the most expensive fossils ever sold.

At 11 meters tall and 27 feet tall, Apex is also considered one of the most complete skeletal structures of its kind. Paleontologist Cary Woodruff was among the scientists who saw the specimen at the dig site in Colorado where it was discovered.

NPR’s Andrew Mambo spoke with Woodruff, who is also a curator at the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science in Miami.

“Scutes” or bony plates on the back of a 150-million-year-old stegosaurus fossil at Sotheby’s in New York.

Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images

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Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Cary Woodruff: The first time I saw the specimen, I was with the individual who had collected it at the quarry where it was found in Colorado. And the rock was very strong. So it’s never like Jurassic Park, but it wasn’t like a nice laid out skeleton and oh god you could see it all clear as day. But at least I remember, you know, watching. Here is a part of a stegosaurus. And again, even for each fossil it’s really kind of magical to see this almost like an ugly duckling, too, for each fossil to see it from this preparation process to the end result. You know, it’s always very special for a scientist.

Andrew Mambo: So Sotheby’s is auctioning off this stegosaurus fossil on July 17th. The auction house estimates it will go for somewhere between $4 million and $6 million. How do you put a monetary value on something like a dinosaur fossil?

Wood: Speaking as a scientist, fossils have no monetary value. You know, these numbers are largely arbitrary. I mean, every fossil is literally unique. And I’m not just saying that, like the starry-eyed scientist. For example, no two animals are alike. I don’t think fossils should be allowed to be auctioned. And these auctions really continue to deepen the divide between what we would consider academic and commercial paleontology.

Mambo: I have read of people donating and having replicas and not having the exact fossil itself. Can you talk a little bit about that? Is this a possible way forward?

Wood: I think copies are the best possible way. I mean, how many of us have a copy of a painting in our house or something? You know the real ones you can see in a museum? And if some rich person is convinced that they want to buy this dinosaur that’s being auctioned off, that they were convinced that they wanted to take this specimen and see it scientifically succeed, and they wanted to give it to them, in this example, a museum, we will have a cast that we will put in your living room. Then you can literally expose it and brag to all your friends and say, “Go to the museum and see the truth, and I was able to put it in that museum.”

The skull of the stegosaurus specimen is on display at Sotheby’s.

Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images

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Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images

NPR reached out to Sotheby’s Senior Vice President and Global Head of Science and Pop Culture Cassandra Hatton to respond to criticism of fossil auctions.

“The loss of scientifically important fossils in a private collection is an oft-cited concern, but in our experience, we have yet to see it materialize,” Hatton said. “We find that customers buy specimens in bulk either for museums or donate them.”