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 A pre-sale estimate had predicted that the skeletons, offered as a
single lot, could fetch between $7 million and $9 million — a price
out of the reach of most museums. There were hopes that a wealthy
buyer would donate the skeletons to a public institution but the
price failed to meet the reserve at the Bonhams auction; the highest
offer was $5.5 million.
Auction officials said they remained hopeful a buyer could be found,
possibly among institutions that previously expressed interest.
"We already had parties contacting us in advance of the sale, that
should they not sell, please keep us in mind, we're very
interested," said Thomas Lindgren, Bonhams co-consulting director of
natural history. "Those negotiations will begin immediately."
There is precedent for a wealthy bidder to purchase and donate such
a find. Sue, a Tyrannosaurus rex discovered in South Dakota in 1990,
was purchased and donated to The Field Museum in Chicago.
The dueling dinos' discovery began with a pelvis protruding through
rock at a Montana ranch. Three more months of chiseling and digging
revealed a remarkable discovery: two nearly complete, fossilized
dinosaur skeletons of a carnivore and herbivore, their tails
touching.
A pushed-in skull and teeth of one dinosaur embedded in the other
suggested a deadly confrontation between them. Clayton Phipps, a
fossil hunter who made the discovery on his neighbor's land in 2006
in the fossil-rich Hell Creek Formation, gave the fossils their
name.
The fossils are believed to be a Nanotyrannus lancensis, a smaller
relative of the T. rex, and a newly discovered species of
Chasmosaurine ceratopsian, a close relative of the Triceratops,
which lived at the end of the Cretaceous age some 65 million years
ago.
"I am just the lucky guy that happened to stumble out there and find
this dinosaur," Phipps said. "I really appreciate the academic
paleontologists that understand the importance of what us amateurs
bring to the mix. I am hoping that it will be professionally and
academically studied. ... I want to know more about them."
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They were found fully articulated with pockets of skin tissue
attached. They have been separated into four large blocks because of
their total 40-ton weight and are on display in a plaza adjacent to
Bonhams.
Kirk Johnson, director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of
Natural History, called the dinosaurs "a significant discovery."
"They are a superb pair of specimens and are certainly of great
scientific and display value," he said. "This pair is certainly a
unique find" for the Hell Creek Formation.
Lindgren said scientists will have to determine whether the
ceratopsian was indeed a new species, but either way, it would
"still be one of the rarest ceratopsians of all time."
"It is either the most complete and oldest triceratops that had
lived at the end of the Cretaceous or it's a brand-new species," he
said.
But Jack Horner, a paleontologist at Montana State University,
called the promoters' claims a means "to enhance the price of the
specimen."
"These fossils are not worth anything because they were collected to
sell and not specifically for their science," he said.
Johnson said the skeletons would need to be extracted from their
enclosing sandstone and compared to other skeletons in various
museums to determine their "actual completeness." But he said
finding a carnivore and herbivore together is still "very unusual."
[Associated
Press; DEEPTI HAJELA and
ULA ILNYTZKY]
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