Unveiled Mystery: 150-Million-Year-Old Ceratosaurus Skeleton Fetches Jaw-Dropping $30.5 Million at Auction
The specimen is the only juvenile skeleton of its species ever found, and is only the fourth Ceratosaurus skeleton ever discovered.
The Ceratosaurus’ Journey To Auction
Matthew Sherman/Sotheby’sThe Ceratosaurus skeleton is fragile due to it being that of a younger dinosaur.
The juvenile Ceratosaurus skeleton was first discovered in 1996 near Bone Cabin Quarry, Wyoming. The area is known to be a dinosaur fossil hot-spot.
It was a miraculous find — only three other Ceratosaurus skeletons have been found, according to Sotheby’s, where the fossil was put up for auction. It’s also the only one of these skeletons to be a juvenile.
The skeleton stands more than six feet tall and measures about 11 feet long, and dates back over 150 million years. It also has an almost complete skull, one of the main selling points of the fossil. The juvenile skeleton is made up of 139 original fossil bone elements as well as sculpted materials.
The Ceratosaurus dinosaurs are characterized by their distinctive nasal horns and bony-armored backs and tails. The carnivore would’ve roamed the floodplains of the modern-day American West.
By 2000, the skeleton had been acquired by the Mountain America Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, Utah. It was on display at the museum for over 20 years. But last year, 2024, the museum sold the skeleton for an undisclosed sum to a company called Fossilogic.
Fossilogic had been formed by a man named Brock Sisson, who had worked at the Mountain America Museum of Ancient Life back when he was a teenager. After the company finished and mounted the Ceratosaurus specimen, they prepared to put it up for auction at Sotheby’s.
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