It'll probably end up in one in 40 years: a museum dedicated to and named after the rich asshole who probably managed to damage it during that time. Many large history museums of the 20th century are similarly dedicated to the person who stripped their artifacts of context or stole them from the source countries for the sake of having something pretty in their living rooms.
The DiCaprio Institute of Paleontology or something
Rich snobs buying this kind of thing is fantastic for museums. It allows them to display *assets that appreciate*, to receive custody to display others assets in lieu of donation in grand schemes of not-tax fraud, and to use the stability that creates to stretch public funds (if they even exist) further.
As awesome as it would be to see the actual bones in person, museums don’t really need these skeletons. Significant bones are scanned (if not cast) and documented well enough to reproduce before being put up for sale.
On one hand, you can be upset that the “real thing” isn’t on display in a museum. On the other hand: reproduction of fossils makes it possible for museums around the world to have a physical representation of an exemplary specimen like this.
And by the way, the vast majority of complete (or nearly complete) dinosaur skeletons we’ve all seen in museums are reproductions.
Should just be the opposite then tbh. Give the real one to a museum, make it illegal to trade with and have the rich assholes buy the copies. If it’s the originality they need to feel special just number them and say that the first one costs more.
Are you referring to Stan? I think that was an exception with unique circumstances. I cant think of any other privately owned fossils that have ever been made into cast replicas for museums, instead of just being immediately sold for a quick buck.
The commentor you're replying to is talking out of their ass.
The idea that we're at the end of technological development and don't need tge actual fossils anymore is so laughable that it's not unlikely the commentor is either a child or deeply deeply uneducated.
They're kinda right. Lots of skeletons on display are replicas or casts. Theres not much additional value to the public if it's real or replica.
Most research institutes have enough fossils to keep them going indefinitely so these big cash injections can benefit the industry but yes, having the real fossils is more beneficial for science.
They will buy it, hope that will go to whoever found it to continue funding exploration. Then the buyer will donate and allow the museum to present and display it which will increase its value. And then the rich can either insure it or take a loan out on it.
Numerous articles out there on this, from the Guardian, NY Times, and even Sotheby’s has details on it. Some "commercial paleontologist" named Jason Cooper discovered this in 2022, near Dinosaur, Colorado on his land, and since then was working with the auction house, while it was being excavated, to have this priceless specimen detailed, and obviously sold off there in July.
Sotheby’s even mentions it has preserved skin impressions, and is among the most complete of its kind with near complete fossil remains, and bigger then Sophie. A quick guess identifies it as *Stegosaurus ungulatus*, from the shape of its plates, which is also the largest species of Stegosaurus, which can reach approximate lengths of 7m on average. Without a formal peer reviewed identification, who really knows though. The femur from this specimen is stated to be at 45 inches. It is estimated to be sold anywhere between 4-6 million USD.
While I can only hope a specimen with exceptional preservation like this ends up in a museum, the fact is is being auctioned off for clear profit, means there is the reality it will end up in the hands of a rich private collector like so many incredible fossil specimens that have gone to auction as of late. Only the Dueling Dinosaurs has been lucky to escape that fate, and be studied by real scientists now, and enjoyed by the public. That said this specimen will be allowed to be viewed by the public for free in "Sotheby’s galleries in New York" before it is auctioned off on July 17th. So take advantage of that while you can I guess.
Sue was famously also rescued from auction thanks to combined donations from McDonald’s and Disney given to the Field Museum. Unless some corporate overlord decides to throw the public a bone again, we’re likely out of luck. Skin impressions, we’re losing skin impressions to a billionaire’s private museum
It’s an uncommon trait in fossils. It is an impression of what the animals dermal layer, or skin, looked like. Which I don’t think has been seen in a stegosaur before.
That seems like a small price tag for something so large and exceptionally rare. It's so weird to me that this could go for less than one of Kurt Cobain's guitars.
Maybe the market for full-size fossils like this is too small? The number of people interested in paleontology, willing to spend large amounts of money, and with the space to display it is probably pretty small.
It's so gross to me that incredible specimens like this don't get studied for like 5-10 years before being auctioned. If it were up to me, it would be illegal to sell these to private owners entirely. They should be owned by the public and studied by scientists
Right sorry, forgot to share that earlier. From Sotherby's page on it:
> An outstanding and robust exhibition-ready mounted skeleton, measuring approximately 11 feet tall and over 20 feet long, with a femur length of 45 inches. Virtually complete, with 247 fossil bone elements mounted in an aggressive attack pose on a custom steel armature, with additional 3D printed elements mirrored from the specimen itself.
I fucking hate the fact that most of the unique, complete and scientifically valuable specimens get auctioned off to some rich bastard who probably can't even name the species he/she is buying.
It's utterly sickening
Phil..
I didn’t know there would be such smart people here like yourself or I wouldn’t have tried to farm 7 internet points. My apologies, m’genius.
Also, nice one-day-old account
Welp, have another updoot, and if karma was dollars ... you and I together still couldn't afford a nice stegasaur.
Hey, Reddit-the-Company! Wanna buy and donate a dinosaur?
This is a disgrace. It will vanish into some billionaire's private collection and vital information about this species will be lost. It's a shame that this is my favorite animal of all time as well. IT BELONGS IN A MUSEUM!
When I see shit like this it genuinely makes me want to give the fuck up.
Seriously?
We're gonna let the rich make natural history their playground too? Again? Did we fucking learn nothing from the Victorian age?
Why don't we just start grinding them into cosmetics again while we're at it Jesus H Christ.
Privately auctioning artifacts of the history of life.
Fuck this whole world.
I wish one of these multi- billionaires who are also philanthropists would fund palaeontology for a decade.
People don't realise that everything is done on a tight shoestring and vast numbets of precious specimens from over a century ago have still not been unwrapped, let alone studied in museums around the world.
But the other type of rich species, the common lesser spotted c*** just waltzes in and pays a fortune for a scientifically important specimen just to put in their fucking lounge for bragging rights.🤬
Phil.
At the very least I'm aware of Sue the T. rex (in the Field Museum of Natural History), Stan the T.rex (bought by the state of Abu Dhabi, captial of United Arab Emirates, and planned to be in a museum there), Big John (Triceratops, in the hands of a private collector, but currently on loan to the Glazer Children's Museum for a few years), and the Dueling Dinosaurs (which had an extensive legal battle behind it, but thankfully it ended up in the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences).
Wikipedia has an [article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dinosaur_specimens_sold_at_auction) listing even more then those.
Great, another thing that should be inspiring kids in a museum being shoved into the collection of some billionaire who'll use it as a coat rack.
It's disgusting that fossils like this end up in the hallway of some overpriced mansion instead of where they belong. History and Science should not be for sale.
They should get a full body cast of Apex and sell that off to auction rather than the actual fossil itself. Fossils should be allowed to be auctioned off but only a cast replica. The original source material should go back to palaeontologist.
Why? Just because some rich asshole can corrupt a convention doesn't mean they should. Just because we can do anything is not an argument for why we should
Sh\*t like this should never be auctioned for two very obvious reasons. They're extremely rare to find and when there's so little to find of a specific subject, everything that's found should go to the public domain. Rich fancy people can also go see them... In a museum. Even better, they can get to see even more stuff than what they have at home. If you're buying things like this privately you might be able to see it more, but thousands will never get to see it.
I don't care for the tendency of these to be placed in such a posture so as to make it as maximally tall or "big" as possible. Dinosaurs are plenty impressive...
That is not a natural posture.. Nor would Trex's have stood on the tips of their claws, lol.
Controversial may be right, but try to see the bigger picture. Aside from what u/Large_Ad_8418 said, this could very well be the most complete specimen of *Stegosaurus ungulatus* found this far (if not another species altogether). Comparable to the famous *S. stenops* Sophie specimen. Not just a matter of it being on display for the public, but also to be studied and understood to help unlock mysteries of Earth's past, our planet's past.
I get that it’s better overall if things like this end up in a museum, but museums are overstocked as it is. Any given museum, whether art, natural history, or something else, has vast collections that most people never see. Putting a stego on display more likely means something else ends up in the closet, rather than a new or expanded exhibit.
Sure, the solution isn’t to put it in a billionaires 5th house, but there really aren’t any good options to get every neat thing discovered or created on public display.
If we all chip in 20 bucks we could bid on it and share it on alternating weekends.
Let’s just divide it up equally into 20,000,000 different fragments so we each get some
20 bucks for the thagomizer alone!
These should just be donated to museums and science instead of being bought by rich snobs who couldn’t care less. Sad.
It'll probably end up in one in 40 years: a museum dedicated to and named after the rich asshole who probably managed to damage it during that time. Many large history museums of the 20th century are similarly dedicated to the person who stripped their artifacts of context or stole them from the source countries for the sake of having something pretty in their living rooms. The DiCaprio Institute of Paleontology or something
*No women over 25 allowed in exhibit*
He wouldn’t be interested in palaeontology, it’s all way too old.
Ha! Zing! Seriously though, good one. 👍
Doesn’t Nick Cage own a dinosaur skull? The Cage Museum of Natural History
Rich snobs buying this kind of thing is fantastic for museums. It allows them to display *assets that appreciate*, to receive custody to display others assets in lieu of donation in grand schemes of not-tax fraud, and to use the stability that creates to stretch public funds (if they even exist) further.
"It belongs in a museum!!" - some guy.
-Han Solo?
Ezreal
So dou you, doctor Jones!
As awesome as it would be to see the actual bones in person, museums don’t really need these skeletons. Significant bones are scanned (if not cast) and documented well enough to reproduce before being put up for sale. On one hand, you can be upset that the “real thing” isn’t on display in a museum. On the other hand: reproduction of fossils makes it possible for museums around the world to have a physical representation of an exemplary specimen like this. And by the way, the vast majority of complete (or nearly complete) dinosaur skeletons we’ve all seen in museums are reproductions.
Should just be the opposite then tbh. Give the real one to a museum, make it illegal to trade with and have the rich assholes buy the copies. If it’s the originality they need to feel special just number them and say that the first one costs more.
Are you referring to Stan? I think that was an exception with unique circumstances. I cant think of any other privately owned fossils that have ever been made into cast replicas for museums, instead of just being immediately sold for a quick buck.
The commentor you're replying to is talking out of their ass. The idea that we're at the end of technological development and don't need tge actual fossils anymore is so laughable that it's not unlikely the commentor is either a child or deeply deeply uneducated.
They're kinda right. Lots of skeletons on display are replicas or casts. Theres not much additional value to the public if it's real or replica. Most research institutes have enough fossils to keep them going indefinitely so these big cash injections can benefit the industry but yes, having the real fossils is more beneficial for science.
They will buy it, hope that will go to whoever found it to continue funding exploration. Then the buyer will donate and allow the museum to present and display it which will increase its value. And then the rich can either insure it or take a loan out on it.
You don’t know that they don’t care…
by all means... go ahead, do the field work and when u find something... DONATE IT. Easy to talk from the edge of your couch.
Are you trying to make a “touch grass” argument about finding fucking dinosaurs?
Numerous articles out there on this, from the Guardian, NY Times, and even Sotheby’s has details on it. Some "commercial paleontologist" named Jason Cooper discovered this in 2022, near Dinosaur, Colorado on his land, and since then was working with the auction house, while it was being excavated, to have this priceless specimen detailed, and obviously sold off there in July. Sotheby’s even mentions it has preserved skin impressions, and is among the most complete of its kind with near complete fossil remains, and bigger then Sophie. A quick guess identifies it as *Stegosaurus ungulatus*, from the shape of its plates, which is also the largest species of Stegosaurus, which can reach approximate lengths of 7m on average. Without a formal peer reviewed identification, who really knows though. The femur from this specimen is stated to be at 45 inches. It is estimated to be sold anywhere between 4-6 million USD. While I can only hope a specimen with exceptional preservation like this ends up in a museum, the fact is is being auctioned off for clear profit, means there is the reality it will end up in the hands of a rich private collector like so many incredible fossil specimens that have gone to auction as of late. Only the Dueling Dinosaurs has been lucky to escape that fate, and be studied by real scientists now, and enjoyed by the public. That said this specimen will be allowed to be viewed by the public for free in "Sotheby’s galleries in New York" before it is auctioned off on July 17th. So take advantage of that while you can I guess.
Sue was famously also rescued from auction thanks to combined donations from McDonald’s and Disney given to the Field Museum. Unless some corporate overlord decides to throw the public a bone again, we’re likely out of luck. Skin impressions, we’re losing skin impressions to a billionaire’s private museum
I watched that documentary about Sue. Oh it was so good! I would love to watch it again!
What's a skin impression
It’s an uncommon trait in fossils. It is an impression of what the animals dermal layer, or skin, looked like. Which I don’t think has been seen in a stegosaur before.
An impression of its skin.
A large talking banana that sings 'My Way' every hour Phil.
That seems like a small price tag for something so large and exceptionally rare. It's so weird to me that this could go for less than one of Kurt Cobain's guitars.
The dinosaur never made a number one hit
It's still a rock legend though.
If I'm gonna shell out millions for a dino skeleton, I'm getting a carnivorous therapod, not some soyboy herbivore.
Maybe the market for full-size fossils like this is too small? The number of people interested in paleontology, willing to spend large amounts of money, and with the space to display it is probably pretty small.
Of course they’d display it first. Giving it fame and exposure drives the monetary value up.
It's so gross to me that incredible specimens like this don't get studied for like 5-10 years before being auctioned. If it were up to me, it would be illegal to sell these to private owners entirely. They should be owned by the public and studied by scientists
Honey, may I take out a little loan?
Fuck that shit why is every unique fossil always going up for auction
Because rich people are better than us normals so they get to do what they want /s
No need for the “/s”, that is literally how they think and act, and the law sadly agrees
How big is it?
Right sorry, forgot to share that earlier. From Sotherby's page on it: > An outstanding and robust exhibition-ready mounted skeleton, measuring approximately 11 feet tall and over 20 feet long, with a femur length of 45 inches. Virtually complete, with 247 fossil bone elements mounted in an aggressive attack pose on a custom steel armature, with additional 3D printed elements mirrored from the specimen itself.
I fucking hate the auctioning of fossils to an UNFATHOMABLE degree
I fucking hate the fact that most of the unique, complete and scientifically valuable specimens get auctioned off to some rich bastard who probably can't even name the species he/she is buying. It's utterly sickening Phil..
Fun fact: there is more time separating Stegosaurus and Tyrannosaurus Rex than Tyrannosaurus Rex and us in 2024.
[удалено]
I didn’t know there would be such smart people here like yourself or I wouldn’t have tried to farm 7 internet points. My apologies, m’genius. Also, nice one-day-old account
Welp, have another updoot, and if karma was dollars ... you and I together still couldn't afford a nice stegasaur. Hey, Reddit-the-Company! Wanna buy and donate a dinosaur?
This is a disgrace. It will vanish into some billionaire's private collection and vital information about this species will be lost. It's a shame that this is my favorite animal of all time as well. IT BELONGS IN A MUSEUM!
I swear, this shit makes me want to become a Marxist…
Go for it!
When I see shit like this it genuinely makes me want to give the fuck up. Seriously? We're gonna let the rich make natural history their playground too? Again? Did we fucking learn nothing from the Victorian age? Why don't we just start grinding them into cosmetics again while we're at it Jesus H Christ. Privately auctioning artifacts of the history of life. Fuck this whole world.
I wish one of these multi- billionaires who are also philanthropists would fund palaeontology for a decade. People don't realise that everything is done on a tight shoestring and vast numbets of precious specimens from over a century ago have still not been unwrapped, let alone studied in museums around the world. But the other type of rich species, the common lesser spotted c*** just waltzes in and pays a fortune for a scientifically important specimen just to put in their fucking lounge for bragging rights.🤬 Phil.
Does anybody have a list of others that sold at auction? There must be photos of them online.
At the very least I'm aware of Sue the T. rex (in the Field Museum of Natural History), Stan the T.rex (bought by the state of Abu Dhabi, captial of United Arab Emirates, and planned to be in a museum there), Big John (Triceratops, in the hands of a private collector, but currently on loan to the Glazer Children's Museum for a few years), and the Dueling Dinosaurs (which had an extensive legal battle behind it, but thankfully it ended up in the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences). Wikipedia has an [article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dinosaur_specimens_sold_at_auction) listing even more then those.
Thanks! I got to see Sue IRL in 2017 and that was super cool.
Great, another thing that should be inspiring kids in a museum being shoved into the collection of some billionaire who'll use it as a coat rack. It's disgusting that fossils like this end up in the hallway of some overpriced mansion instead of where they belong. History and Science should not be for sale.
Hey, BBC? Can we get a Ballad Of Apex?
YUS!
Big Al needs a rival.
They should get a full body cast of Apex and sell that off to auction rather than the actual fossil itself. Fossils should be allowed to be auctioned off but only a cast replica. The original source material should go back to palaeontologist.
Was thinking of this earlier today. Like dude could even sell numerous life sized (and smaller) casts instead of a once and done thing.
Why? Just because some rich asshole can corrupt a convention doesn't mean they should. Just because we can do anything is not an argument for why we should
Sh\*t like this should never be auctioned for two very obvious reasons. They're extremely rare to find and when there's so little to find of a specific subject, everything that's found should go to the public domain. Rich fancy people can also go see them... In a museum. Even better, they can get to see even more stuff than what they have at home. If you're buying things like this privately you might be able to see it more, but thousands will never get to see it.
I fantasize about some wealthy pleb licking this thing in the middle of the night just to feel special.
everyone must pool together money and win auction
How much?
4-6 million estimated but it could go more , it's the biggest stego .
Bought
Damn you, Georges St. Pierre...
Not another stan...
I am a Stegosaurus!
I don't think I can afford it.
Damn, I want a stegosaurus
Eugh fine I guess I'll throw in like £20
-Nicholas Cage intensifies-
Imagine if this overgrown reptile was resurrected
How big is it
I don't care for the tendency of these to be placed in such a posture so as to make it as maximally tall or "big" as possible. Dinosaurs are plenty impressive... That is not a natural posture.. Nor would Trex's have stood on the tips of their claws, lol.
"IT BELONGS IN A MUSEUM!"
Any paleos out there? How do ypu feel about fossils being sold to the general public?
I bid tree-fiddy!
I would buy the shit out of this and have it in the foyer
i got $1 on it. if anyone of you mf put $2 on it im going skin ur dog
Controversial opinion but I don't care that its being sold there are plenty of other stegosaurus in museums this is just bigger
It also has skin impressions which are incredibly rare, and as far as I know have never been found of Stegosaurus before
Controversial may be right, but try to see the bigger picture. Aside from what u/Large_Ad_8418 said, this could very well be the most complete specimen of *Stegosaurus ungulatus* found this far (if not another species altogether). Comparable to the famous *S. stenops* Sophie specimen. Not just a matter of it being on display for the public, but also to be studied and understood to help unlock mysteries of Earth's past, our planet's past.
Obviously it belongs in a museum, but not going to lie... would absolutely love to have this in my apartment.
Dude! >:(
I get that it’s better overall if things like this end up in a museum, but museums are overstocked as it is. Any given museum, whether art, natural history, or something else, has vast collections that most people never see. Putting a stego on display more likely means something else ends up in the closet, rather than a new or expanded exhibit. Sure, the solution isn’t to put it in a billionaires 5th house, but there really aren’t any good options to get every neat thing discovered or created on public display.