LEHI, Utah — A one-of-a-kind dinosaur fossil which has called Utah home for many years just brought in the big bucks for a Utah County LLC.
Once on display at the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, the juvenile ceratosaurus specimen shattered its pre-sale price of four to six million dollars Wednesday.
After 50 years of working in an ancient world, state paleontologist James Kirkland has uncovered plenty of history - and made names for it, too.
“I’m working on three more right now, so that’ll bring me up to 26 dinosaurs I’ve named,” said Kirkland.
One species he’s not responsible for is not just well liked.
“Ceratosaurus, it’s one of the real popular dinosaurs, because it’s the big, meat-eating dinosaur with a horn on its nose and above its eyes,” Kirkland said.
It’s also highly sought after.
“This superb specimen has been meticulously prepared,” said Sotheby’s auctioneer Phyllis Kao. “One of the most important and rarest fossils ever to come to market.”
At six feet tall and eleven feet long, this is the only juvenile of its kind. The Lehi-based museum recently sold it off to a Pleasant Grove paleontology business called Fossilogic.
Only four ceratosaur skeletons have ever been found. This one came from the historic Bone Cabin Quarry in Wyoming, and on Wednesday, it went to the highest bidder at a Sotheby’s auction in New York.
“When they put it up, I said I bet it goes for about ten million. I underestimated by a touch”
“26 million dollars…fair warning…sold!” Kao announced.
After fees, the 150-million-year-old piece carried a $30.5 million price tag.
Despite the disappointment of some in the profession at the sale, Kirkland notes there was nothing wrong with it. He simply hopes those bones, or some of the funds that were gleaned from them, can go back to supporting their scientific work.
“You know, if you gave our program 26 million dollars, we’d get you dozens of dinosaurs,” Kirkland said. “Not dozens of skeletons - dozens of totally unnamed dinosaurs.”
I talked on the phone with Fossilogic founder Brock Sisson, who was the fossil’s owner. He says he helped put the ceratosaur on display at the Lehi museum when he was younger.
After acquiring it from them, he then had to custom mount every single bone for this sale.
“Just [mounting] the skull took me two-and-a-half months,” said Sisson.
While the auction was anonymous, he says he too would be disappointed if it goes to a private collection.
“I’d be disappointed, but at the same time - these things don’t stay hidden away,” Sisson said. “If you look historically, they always end up in a museum eventually.”
Sisson added that he intends to put some of the money back into paleontology work in Utah,
“The word will come out eventually, where it went,” said Kirkland. “Hopefully, someone will get to do science on it.”
The New York Times says it is the third-most expensive sale of a dinosaur fossil on record.
