Sotheby’s has auctioned off the skeleton of a stegosaurus named Apex, billed as “the best for Stegosaurus to ever come to market,” for nearly $45 million, a document.

The sale value far exceeds the estimate of $4 million to $6 million that Sotheby’s had assigned to the lot. Described as a mounted Stegosaurus skeleton, the precise sale value was $44.6 million, surpassing earlier gross sales data for dinosaur fossils. 

Sotheby’s, which mentioned the public sale closed Wednesday morning, didn’t instantly disclose the customer’s identification. 

“‘Apex’ lived as much as its identify right now, inspiring bidders globally to change into probably the most useful fossil ever offered at public sale,” Cassandra Hatton, Sotheby’s world head of science & widespread tradition mentioned in an announcement following the sale. 

“This sale has been years within the making, and at each flip, we have now labored carefully with Jason Cooper, from the second of its discovery in Dinosaur, Colorado, to its sale in New York,” she added, making reference to the paleontologist who found the specimen. 

The long-lasting skeleton is roughly 161 million years previous, in keeping with Sotheby’s, and measures 11 ft tall by almost 27 ft lengthy from nostril to tail. In line with the public sale home’s itemizing, Apex “is mounted in an aggressive assault pose on a customized metal armature.”

It was excavated on non-public land in Moffat County, Colorado, close to the city of Dinosaur, between 2022 and 2023.

The fossil of one of many world’s most recognizable dinosaurs is almost utterly intact, in keeping with Sotheby’s. The fossil additionally reveals indicators of arthritis, suggesting that Apex lived an extended life. 

Apex shouldn’t be the primary dinosaur to promote at public sale. In 1997, a Tyrannosaurus rex fossil offered for $8.4 million and in 2020, one other T. rex skeleton fetched $32 million. Two years later, in 2022, Sothebys offered a Gorgosaurus skeleton for over $6 million. 

— The Related Press contributed to this report