A near-complete Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil named 'Gus' is set to go under the hammer at Sotheby's in New York, with a minimum starting bid of $19 million. The auction house expects the specimen to sell for up to $30 million (approximately £22.5 million).
Discovery and Excavation
The fossil was discovered in 2021 on a ranch in Harding County, South Dakota, by rancher Gary 'Gus' Licking and his wife, Dana. A metatarsal bone from the dinosaur's foot was spotted protruding from the ground. The specimen, which roamed the area 67 million years ago, is one of the largest and most complete T. Rex skeletons ever found, comprising 183 bone parts. It measures 38 feet long and 12.5 feet tall.
Gary Licking, after whom the fossil is named, died in 2022 at age 67 during the excavation process. The Texas-based company Theropoda Expeditions led the excavation, camping on the Licking property for five months each year. Thomas Heitkamp, president of Theropoda Expeditions, stated: 'What is out in the hills is all that will ever exist, and finding it is critical to preserving it. You're dealing with material that has been a part of the earth for a very, very long time and it has no interest in cooperating – it wants to stay there.'
Scientific Significance and Controversy
Cassandra Hatton, worldwide head of Sotheby's Science & Natural History division, noted that Gary had roamed his 6,500-acre property for years, finding T. Rex teeth and fossil fragments, and realized something important lay underground. The skeleton took two years to assemble, mounted in a predatory pose on a steel platform. Some bones show signs of fractures and healing, suggesting another T. Rex attacked Gus.
However, paleontologists have criticized the sale of dinosaur fossils to private buyers. Professor Susannah Maidment of the Natural History Museum in London told Metro: 'Dinosaur specimens are extremely rare and all are scientifically important because we have so few of them. Yet they are increasingly being sold like pieces of art to private individuals who often consider them as assets rather than natural heritage.' She added: 'Amateur and commercial palaeontologists deserve to be recompensed for their work in finding, excavating and preparing fossils, but a valuation of $50 million is profiteering off natural heritage that should be available for everybody to see, not locked away in a rich person's house.'
Previous Dinosaur Auctions
This is not the first major dinosaur auction. Sotheby's sold Sue the T. Rex in 1997 for $8.4 million. In 2020, a T. Rex nicknamed Stan fetched a record $31.8 million. The most expensive dinosaur fossil ever sold is Apex the stegosaurus, which went for $44.6 million in 2024, far exceeding its $4 million estimate. The buyer was hedge fund billionaire Kenneth Griffin.
Dana Licking expressed gratitude that the team assembled Gus, saying the reptile could have been 'lost' forever. 'To make it come to life takes a lot of love and care and dedication, and they stopped at nothing to make that happen,' she added.
