‘Jodi,’ a rare Nanotyrannus fossil, sells for $47 million at Sotheby’s auction

A scarce skeleton of a Nanotyrannus dinosaur sold for $47.3 million to an anonymous buyer in a Sotheby’s auction on Tuesday.

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The species, recently confirmed to be a distant cousin of Tyrannosaurus rex, was auctioned off at Sotheby’s in New York City, The Associated Press reported.

The final price was much higher than Sotheby’s had projected. According to its listing, it was projected to have a final gavel price of between $6 million and $9 million.

Jodi fetched the second-highest price for dinosaur bones. Several months ago, a T. rex fossil nicknamed “Gus” sold for a record $50.1 million at Sotheby’s.

The skeleton measures approximately 9 feet, 6 inches tall on its armature and 19.6 feet long from snout to tail, according to the listing. Its femur measures 33 1/2 inches in length, while the humerus is 14 1/2 inches long. The auction house said the skeleton was 70% complete.

It has been on display at Sotheby’s upper Manhattan headquarters since early October, the AP reported.

The skeleton was discovered by Jodi Pierson in 2019 on her privately owned land in the Hell Creek Formation in Garfield County, Montana, the Sotheby’s auction listing notes. It was subsequently named for her.

In a statement, Sotheby’s thanked the team of professional fossil hunters whose efforts to discover and excavate the specimen were the focus of the Discovery Channel’s 2020 documentary series, “Dino Hunters,” the AP reported.

“Their commitment to understanding and preserving this remarkable specimen has helped bring us to this moment, a testament to the fact that we can all make major contributions to science,” Cassandra Hatton, Sotheby’s head of science and natural history, said in the statement.