Sotheby’s has auctioned off the skeleton of a stegosaurus named Apex, billed as “the best for Stegosaurus to ever come to market,” for nearly $45 million, a document.

The sale worth far exceeds the estimate of $4 million to $6 million that Sotheby’s had assigned to the lot. Described as a mounted Stegosaurus skeleton, the precise sale worth was $44.6 million, surpassing earlier gross sales data for dinosaur fossils. 

Sotheby’s, which stated the public sale closed Wednesday morning, didn’t instantly disclose the customer’s id. 

“‘Apex’ lived as much as its identify at present, inspiring bidders globally to turn into essentially the most worthwhile fossil ever offered at public sale,” Cassandra Hatton, Sotheby’s international head of science & common tradition stated in a press release following the sale. 

“This sale has been years within the making, and at each flip, we now have labored intently with Jason Cooper, from the second of its discovery in Dinosaur, Colorado, to its sale in New York,” she added, making reference to the paleontologist who found the specimen. 

The long-lasting skeleton is roughly 161 million years previous, in accordance with Sotheby’s, and measures 11 ft tall by practically 27 ft lengthy from nostril to tail. Based on the public sale home’s itemizing, Apex “is mounted in an aggressive assault pose on a customized metal armature.”

It was excavated on personal land in Moffat County, Colorado, close to the city of Dinosaur, between 2022 and 2023.

The fossil of one of many world’s most recognizable dinosaurs is sort of utterly intact, in accordance with Sotheby’s. The fossil additionally reveals indicators of arthritis, suggesting that Apex lived a protracted life. 

Apex isn’t the primary dinosaur to promote at public sale. In 1997, a Tyrannosaurus rex fossil offered for $8.4 million and in 2020, one other T. rex skeleton fetched $32 million. Two years later, in 2022, Sothebys offered a Gorgosaurus skeleton for over $6 million. 

— The Related Press contributed to this report