Auction offers chance to buy your own skeleton – for just £600,000

A giant skeleton of a dinosaur which last roamed Earth more than 150 million years ago is set to fetch up to £600,000 at a British auction next month.
By The Newsroom
Published 17th Oct 2013, 01:01 BST

The 55ft-long (17 metre) specimen of the long-necked Diplodocus longus is believed to be the first sale at a UK auction of a large dinosaur skeleton, according to experts.

The 19ft-tall (6 metre) female skeleton, nicknamed “Misty”, was found almost completely intact in 2009 by the sons of palaeontologist Raimund Albersdoerfer near a quarry in Wyoming in the United States.

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Albersdoerfer had been taking part in an excavation at a privately-owned quarry when he sent his sons to dig in an area nearby “to get them off his back”. To his astonishment, Benjamin and Jacob returned to say they had found an enormous bone.

Nine weeks later, Albersdoerfer’s team dug out “Misty”, and she has been painstakingly prepared at a leading fossil laboratory in Holland.

The skeleton is now set to sell for an estimated price of £400,000 to £600,000 at Summers Place Auctions in Billingshurst, West Sussex, on November 27. It is being auctioned as part of an Evolution Sale, which is being curated by natural history expert and author Errol Fuller.

Related topics:EarthUnited States