On public display since Wednesday at the Breuer Building, Sotheby’s headquarters and exhibition venue in New York, “Gus”, a T. rex regarded as “one of the largest and most complete specimens” of its kind.
It was presented by Sotheby’s in New York ahead of its auction on July 14.
Estimated by the auction house at between $20 million and $30 million, the highest estimate ever attributed to a dinosaur, this fossil giant was unearthed in the United States, in South Dakota, during digging campaigns carried out between 2021 and 2023.
It lived during the Maastrichtian (72 to 66 million years before our era), a period characterized by a hot climate, a high sea level, and vast floodable coastal plains.
At 11.6 meters in length, making it one of the largest ever discovered according to Sotheby’s, its notable feature is also that, with 183 fossilized bones, it is about 63% complete, which makes it one of the best-preserved in its category.
