The skeleton of "Big John", a giant triceratops 8 meters long, was auctioned this Thursday in Paris for 6.6 million euros (including costs) to an American individual, a "record in Europe" for the sale of 'a dinosaur fossil.

66 million years old, "Big John" was estimated at between 1.2 and 1.5 million euros.

The fossil was put up for auction during a sale at the Hôtel Drouot (Paris) which each year attracts wealthy collectors passionate about impressive natural specimens. Seduced by the good state of preservation of the skeleton, which is 60% complete (and whose skull is 70% complete), the eleven people registered increased the stakes to 5.5 million euros (free of charge), under the supervision of the auctioneer, Me Alexandre Giquello. “It's a remarkable price,” he said after the sale. "I did not expect such a result, that's for sure," confirmed his partner Iacopo Briano, the expert in paleontology and natural history who headed the auction.

"The buyer, an American whose identity has not been revealed, had" fallen under the spell "of the skeleton and sent an emissary there to negotiate it. Big John will therefore be returning to the United States"



Thank you @ lemondefr 🙏 @ BGiquellohttps: //t.co/I9zTOTyelp

- Drouot (@Drouot) October 22, 2021

The skeleton restored for almost a year

The purchaser, an American individual whose identity has not been revealed, had "fallen under the spell" of the skeleton and sent an emissary on the spot to negotiate it, along with other parts. "Big John" will then return to the United States, where it was discovered in 2014 in South Dakota (northern United States) by a professional geologist, said the representative of the mysterious purchaser. He also let it be known that the skeleton would complete the “personal collection” of his buyer. But it is also possible that it is then loaned, given or exhibited at a museum, recalled the expert and the auctioneer.

Unique in size, the "Big John" skeleton was restored for nearly a year by a specialized laboratory in Trieste (Italy) in "compliance with the rules of paleontology", said auctioneer, Me Giquello.

“Big John” lived during the Late Cretaceous Period, the last period of the dinosaur era.

He evolved in Laramidia, an extinct island-continent that stretched from present-day Alaska to Mexico.

The triceratops died in a floodplain, which explains its good conservation, the skeleton having been buried in the mud, a sediment without biological activity.

Skeletal analysis

Collaborations with the Italian universities of Bologna and Chieti were carried out during the restoration to allow researchers to look into the fossil.

Their analyzes made it possible in particular to attest to the exceptional size of the animal's skull, 5 to 10% larger than that of the 40 triceratops skulls already described by the scientific community.

The researchers were also able to study a trace of laceration near the skull, which probably testifies to a blow of the horn received by "Big John" during a fight with a congener.

Triceratops have two long frontal horns, which make them formidable.

Fervor

The sale of this skeleton represents the umpteenth episode of fervor around this type of fossil.

The dinosaur skeletons put on sale in recent years have reached record sums at the instigation of wealthy individuals, to the chagrin of research centers and public museums, often unable to outbid.

The Drouot mansion has already been the scene of several of these auctions: two fossilized allosaurs, ancestors of the T-Rex, were sold for 1.4 and 3 million euros between 2018 and 2020. But the world record remains the sale of a T-Rex in 2020 in New York.

A collector had spent $ 31.8 million to acquire the skeleton.

In 2020, however, several dinosaurs offered in Paris did not find takers, the reserve prices demanded by the seller not having been reached.

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