World's biggest Triceratops skeleton up for auction, expected to sell for more than $1.4 million

  • 11 Sep - 17 Sep, 2021
  • Mag The Weekly
  • Mag Files

The world's largest Triceratops skeleton is up for sale – but owning the prehistoric decor will cost any buyer a pretty penny. At over 26 feet, this 66-million-year-old Triceratops fossil named "Big John" is the largest specimen of its kind ever found, according to French auctioneers Binoche et Giquello. The skeleton is expected to sell for at least $1.4 million at the Drouot auction house in Paris on October 21. The dinosaur lived in what is now modern North America and is believed to have died in an ancient flood in South Dakota – which is where geologist Walter W. Stein Bill first discovered one of the bones in May 2014. Big John's fossils were unearthed the following year, and were restored. Big John certainly earns his moniker. The beast had a skull that measures eight feet and seven inches long and six feet seven inches wide on its own. It also had two massive horns that were three feet and seven inches long and roughly one foot wide at the base. Among the creature's battle scars is a laceration on his collar. Auctioneers believe Big John sustained the injury from a smaller Triceratops. Unlike most dinosaurs, which have been dug up in herds, Triceratops fossils "are usually found individually," per the UK's Natural History Museum, "suggesting they may have spent much of their lives alone."

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