By Andrew Mambo/NPR
A massive Colorado fossil has sold for a record $44.6 million at auction. The nearly complete stegosaurus named "Apex" was found on private land in Moffat County near the town of Dinosaur in 2022. It was excavated last year.
During the Jurassic period, the massive, four-legged creatures with kite-shaped plates along their back once roamed the Earth. Now, some 150 million years later, the skeletal remains of one of them has become the most valuable fossil ever sold at auction.
Sotheby’s had expected "Apex" to fetch $4 million to $6 million — a hefty sum but no where near the final result.
At 11 feet tall and 27 feet long, Apex is also considered one of the most complete skeletal structures of its kind. Paleontologist Cary Woodruff was among the scientists who viewed the specimen at the dig site in Colorado where it was discovered.
NPR's Andrew Mambo talked with Woodruff last month ahead of the auction. Woodruff is also a curator at the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science in Miami.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Cary Woodruff: The first time I saw the specimen, I was with the individual who had collected it out at the quarry where it was found in Colorado. And the rock was incredibly hard. So, it never is like Jurassic Park, but it wasn't like some beautiful laid out skeleton and oh my gosh you could see the whole thing clear as day. But at least I remember, you know, peering. There's part of a stegosaurus here. And again, even for any fossil it's really kind of magical to see this almost like an ugly duckling, too, for any fossil to see it from this preparation process to the end result. You know, it's always very special for a scientist.
Andrew Mambo: So Sotheby's is auctioning off this stegosaurus fossil on July 17. The auction house estimates it'll go for somewhere between $4 million and $6 million. How do they put a monetary value on something like a dinosaur fossil?
Woodruff: Speaking as a scientist, fossils have no monetary value. You know, these numbers are largely arbitrary. I mean, every fossil literally is unique. And I'm not just saying that, as the starry-eyed scientist. Like, there are no two of the exact same animals. I don't think fossils should be allowed to be auctioned. And these auctions really continue to deepen the divide between what we would consider academic and commercial paleontology.
Mambo: I have read about people also donating and having replicas and not having the exact fossil itself. Can you talk a bit about that? Is that a viable way forward?
Woodruff: I think replicas are the best way possible. I mean, how many of us have a copy of a painting at our home or something? You know the real ones that you can see in a museum? And if some wealthy person is adamant they want to buy this dinosaur being auctioned, that they were adamant they wanted to get this specimen and scientifically see it succeed, and they wanted to donate it to, in this example, a museum, we'll have a cast that we'll put up in your living room. Then you can literally showcase it and brag to all your friends and say, "Go to the museum and see the real one, and I was able to put it in that museum."
NPR reached out to Sotheby's Senior Vice President and Global Head of Science and Pop Culture Cassandra Hatton to respond to criticism of auctions of fossil specimens on July 10.
"Losing scientifically important fossils to a private collection is a concern often mentioned, but in our experience, we have yet to see it materialize," Hatton said. "We find that clients overwhelmingly purchase specimens either for museums or donate them."
