Nanotyrannus Jodi sells for $47.3m, second-highest dinosaur fossil at auction

A $47.3m sale that fell short

Six buyers chased the Nanotyrannus, a specimen Sotheby's had estimated at $9 million or more before the sale. Sotheby's has not named the buyer. The skeleton's price is the second-highest ever paid for a dinosaur at auction. It sits below Gus the T. rex, which fetched $50.1 million in July. The record set in July has held for three months. The result is more than five times Jodi's low estimate of $9 million. Museums that want Jodi in a public collection face that price.

The skeleton stands about 10 feet (3 meters) tall and carries roughly 191 fossil-bone elements, including what Sotheby's describes as a virtually complete skull. Sotheby's billed it as an exhibition-ready specimen.

Rancher Jodi Pierson found the fossil on her Montana property in the Hell Creek Formation. Commercial palaeontologist Clayton Phipps excavated it.

Jodi was the first specimen of the genus to reach the market since US researchers confirmed its classification as distinct from Tyrannosaurus rex in October 2025. The animal had long been treated as a juvenile form of T. rex.

Why researchers are worried

Steve Brusatte, a palaeontologist at the University of Edinburgh and a consultant on the Jurassic Park films, called the prospect of losing public access to Jodi "harrowing". He has argued that museums and universities cannot compete at these prices. "I don't know of any museum or university that can afford a price tag like that," he said.

Brusatte compared the trade to a privately owned Mona Lisa. He asked what happens when a wealthy owner keeps a masterpiece out of public view. The worry is not new. After Gus sold, the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology said it hoped the new owner would donate the specimen to an accredited natural history museum, with president-elect Kristi Curry Rogers saying that outcome would keep it available for science. Richard Butler, a vertebrate palaeontologist at the University of Birmingham, told The Guardian that fossils in private collections can become unavailable for research.

The Gus benchmark

Gus sold for $50.1 million at Sotheby's in New York in July 2026, after about 10 minutes of bidding among seven bidders. The winner bid by phone and stayed anonymous.

The T. rex has 183 fossil bones and measures about 38 feet (11.6 meters) long. It is roughly 61% complete by bone count. Gus is one of the largest T. rex specimens ever found. Sotheby's had estimated it at $20 million to $30 million, and the final price was above the top estimate. The fossil was discovered in 2021 on a South Dakota ranch and named after the landowner, Gary Licking.

Other record sales

Apex, a Stegosaurus, sold for $44.6 million in 2024 to the hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin. Jodi's price lands between Apex and Gus.

Stan, a T. rex, fetched nearly $32 million in 2020. Sue, the first dinosaur sold at auction in 1997, is a centrepiece of the Field Museum in Chicago. Cassandra Hatton, Sotheby's head of science and natural history, told AFP the US is the only country where fossils like these are personal property. "If you own the land, you own the fossil and you have the right to sell it," she said. Hatton also said the market rewards good stewardship: "The market responds when great specimens are taken care of in the right way," she said after the Gus sale.