Paris, First Published Oct 22, 2021, 10:13 AM IST
We see many antiquities being sold at auction for crores of rupees. However, dinosaur fossils are now being auctioned off internationally.
The fossilized remains of the largest triceratops dinosaur, Big John, have so far been sold at auction in the French capital for billions of rupees. The skeleton received a European record price of $ 6.65 million (57,85,10,100.00). About 66 million years ago, Big John was in modern-day South Dakota in the United States. In 2014, dinosaur bones were discovered.
With a large skull and three horns, Triserotops was a giant of the Cretaceous. Big John’s skeleton was purchased by a private collector in the US. It was put on public display at the Drut auction in Paris last week. Purchaser details not disclosed. The buyer’s representative said he was very happy to have such a skeleton in his personal collection.
Paleontologists who discovered Big John were able to excavate 60% of the dinosaur skeleton. Trieste specialists in Italy assembled 200 pieces of the dinosaur, including a two-meter-wide skull. From them a skeleton eight meters long and three meters high was made.
There are signs of damage to the skull, which is thought to have been caused by a fight with another dinosaur. It is believed that Big John died in an ancient flood and was buried in the mud. Later, dinosaur bones were preserved in that soil for millions of years.
“This is a masterpiece,” Iaco Briano, a paleontologist involved in Big John’s reconstruction, told France Inter last month. “There are triserotope skulls all over the world, but only a few of them are complete.”
Last Updated Oct 22, 2021, 10:13 AM IST
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