Wire reporting: (AP, via The Seattle Times)

A Nanotyrannus skeleton nicknamed Jodi was auctioned at Sotheby's in New York on Tuesday. The Associated Press and BBC reported a $47.3 million sale, above the house estimate of $6 million to $9 million shown on the lot page^3,5,4.

AP, citing Sotheby's, said an anonymous buyer won after about 12 minutes of bidding against five other prospective buyers online and by phone³. The Sotheby's lot page lists the auction as closed and does not name a buyer or hammer price⁴.

AP reported the price as the second-highest for dinosaur bones sold at auction, after a Tyrannosaurus rex fossil known as Gus sold at Sotheby's this summer for $50.1 million³. BBC likewise ranked Jodi second and named a Stegosaurus, Apex, sold by Sotheby's in July 2024 for $44.6 million, as third⁵.

Sotheby's listed the specimen as Nanotyrannus cf. lancensis from the Hell Creek Formation near Jordan in Garfield County, Montana, about 67 million years old, with about 191 fossil bone elements and a nearly complete skull⁴. AP said it was found in 2019 on a Montana ranch owned by Jodi Pierson and is one of three such skeletons known³.

Mounted size is reported differently. Sotheby's described a mount about 9 feet 6 inches tall on the armature and 19.6 feet long⁴. AP said it stands 6.5 feet tall and stretches nearly 20 feet³.

AP said Nanotyrannus lived in the Cretaceous alongside T. rex, at about half an adult T. rex's length, with longer forelimbs, larger hand claws and more slender teeth, and that research published last year concluded it is a distinct genus rather than a juvenile T. rex³. AP also said some scientists oppose private fossil sales that can keep specimens out of museums³.

Stuff ran the AP account and converted the reported U.S. price to about NZ$82 million in its headline².