The body of a 66 million-year-old dinosaur is for sale.. at 1.5 million euros

The fossilized remains of the largest three-horned dinosaur "Traceratops" ever discovered by paleontologists will be sold late this month at an auction house in Paris.

Known as "Big John", the dinosaur may fetch 1.5 million euros ($1.77 million).

Big John roamed the land, now known as South Dakota, more than 66 million years ago.

Paleontologists discovered its first part of its bones in 2014, eventually finding 60% of its skeleton, including its nearly complete skull.

Auction house Drew estimated that the skeleton of Big John would fetch between 1.2 and 1.5 million euros.

Once sold primarily to museums, dinosaur remains are increasingly attracting private buyers, although their numbers are still few.

"I think there are 10 buyers around the world for this kind of part," said Alexandre Gikello, who runs the sale.

The length of the skull of "Big John", named after the owner of the land where the bones of more than 200 dinosaurs were found, is 2.63 meters, representing about a third of his total body length, and its width is two meters.

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