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The most expensivedinosaurfossil ever betray at auction sale is now on public presentation at the American Museum of Natural History ( AMNH ) in New York City .
" Apex , " is aStegosaurusskeleton excavate in May 2022 near Dinosaur , Colorado by commercial-grade fossilist Jason Cooper . The dinosaur was found in the Morrison Formation , a layer of aqueous rock ‘n’ roll laid down in the late Jurassic catamenia . Like other fossil animals in this shaping , Apex lived more or less 150 million years ago .
The fossil on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
The fogey is also notable for being signally sodding . About 80 % of the skeleton ’s bones are accounted for , make it one of the most completeStegosaurusfossils ever discovered . That completeness , in combination with otherStegosaurusfossils , will help paleontologists learn more about how Stegosaurusgrew from kitten - size hatchlings to beast longer than a minibus .
" As exciting as it is to have this dinosaur on display , it is even more exciting to have the chance to study it and make important scientific data available for research,“Roger Benson , the museum ’s Macaulay Curator of Paleontology , said in astatement . " Stegosaurus is one of the top dinosaurs known by the general public , but scientifically , we have much more to get wind . "
Apex is 11.5 feet ( 3.5 meters ) marvelous and 27 human foot ( 8.2 m ) long . It is mount with its spiked tail raise eminent , as if the dinosaur were about to oppose itself . The specimen does not belong to AMNH , but is being loaned by its emptor , hedging fund manager and billionaire Kenneth C. Griffin . Griffin bought the skeletal frame at auction for $ 44.6 million in July 2024 .
That purchase cost made Apex more expensive than the old record - bearer , a T. male monarch named " Stan " that fit for$31.8 million in 2020 . exemplify the endangerment of the secret sales agreement of specimens , Stan disappeared from the public eye for two years after the sale , alarm scientists who worried the fossil ’s scientific value would be lost .
– Wee footprint of sister Stegosaur stenops discovered in China
– Tiny - point stegosaur with long shadower spikes is one of the old of its kind
– $ 25 million auction sale of T. male monarch skeleton call off at the last minute
Stanturned up in Abu Dhabi in 2022 , however , and is slated to go on display in 2025 in a newly built National History Museum there . Apex will also be available to the research community for the prompt future tense , according to the statement . AMNH plans to display the skeleton for four years . After that , a cast will replace the original pearl . Meanwhile , Griffin has endowed a three - class postdoctoral fellowship for the study of Apex . According to the museum , the destination are to discover which species of StegosaurusApex is as well as investigating the metabolism and increase of stegosaurus . Scientists will take a sampling of the dinosaur ’s thigh bone and also conductCT scanningof the structure of its skull .
While Apex is the high-priced dinosaur ever auctioned , a late sale do another record : longest dinosaur ever auction off . Last calendar month , a 70 - foot ( 21 meter)Apatosaurusskeleton sold for more than $ 6 million in France . The anonymous winner of the auction said scientist would have access to the skeletal frame for study .
