Sotheby’s will auction on July 14th Gus, one of the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex specimens ever discovered. The predator, which lived more than 60 million years ago, was found on a ranch in South Dakota (United States). It took three years of work to extract it. Its starting price is 20 million dollars, but the auction organizers believe it could reach 30 million.
The fossil was discovered by archaeologist Thomas Heitkamp on land owned by the rancher ―now deceased― Gary Gus Licking. For years, he had found teeth and small bone fragments that he could not identify, despite his knowledge of animals, so he decided to hire Heitkamp and his team.
He indicated the place where he had made more finds and he was spot on: there was the skeleton of T. rex. Heitkamp needed three years (2021, 2022, and 2023) to extract it, separate it from the rock matrix, clean it, catalog it, identify it, and reassemble it.
The specimen retains 183 fossil bone elements, approximately between 75% and 80% of the animal’s bone mass when alive, placing it firmly among the most complete T. rex ever found. The skull is exceptionally well preserved, with approximately 82% of the bones, including six sets of teeth.
It measures 11.6 meters ―from head to tail― and 3.8 meters in height. The skull measures 137 centimeters. It is considered one of the largest T. rex ever found. The animal suffered pathologies during its life in the skull, vertebrae, and skeleton. The most notable pathologies include fractured and healed bones.
The first discovery of Tyrannosaurus rex was made by paleontologist Barnum Brown in 1902 while excavating in Hell Creek, in southeastern Montana. In the 122 years since, only 32 T. rex have been discovered, many of them little more than a single bone.
Only two preserved 60% of their bone structure: Sue, which is displayed at the Field Museum in Chicago, and Stan, at the Natural History Museum of Abu Dhabi.
The T. rex lived during the Late Cretaceous, a period characterized by a warm climate and rich alluvial coastal plains, which supported an extraordinary diversity in what is now western North America. These environments, with large river systems and open forests, created the perfect ecological conditions for large herbivores like Triceratops and Edmontosaurus to thrive, and in turn, allowed the development of superpredators like the T. rex.
The T. rex is the most well-known dinosaur to the general public, as it appears in numerous popular movies, children’s books, and toys. It is distinguished by an immense skull, long and deeply rooted teeth, and an exceptionally powerful bite, as well as a highly developed sense of smell and frontal vision. Its enormous hind legs and muscular tail suggest a predator designed for bursts of great speed and strength.
This is not the first time Sotheby’s has auctioned a dinosaur. It did so in 1997 with Sue. Two years ago, it also auctioned another specimen, in this case Apex, which reached 45 million dollars and set a world record for any dinosaur or fossil at auction. Apex is currently on loan at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
Interested parties will be able to see Gus before the auction at Sotheby’s Breuer galleries in New York. Admission is free. The auction is not.
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