Rare Nanotyrannus skeleton Jodi heads to New York auction

A rare Nanotyrannus skeleton is due to be auctioned in New York on Tuesday, with Sotheby’s estimating it could sell for up to $9m (£6.8m). The auction house’s minimum price is $6m (£4.5m).

Nicknamed Jodi, the mounted fossil stands about 10ft (3m) tall. It has around 191 fossil-bone elements and a skull Sotheby’s describes as virtually complete. The auction is the first time a Nanotyrannus specimen has come to market since researchers confirmed the genus was distinct from Tyrannosaurus rex last year.

Nanotyrannus was long thought by some to be a juvenile T. rex. The two were separate, smaller carnivores that lived at the same time, about 67 million years ago. The classification ended decades of debate, according to the BBC.

The sale has renewed disagreement over whether important fossils should be sold privately. Edinburgh palaeontologist Steve Brusatte called the prospect of Jodi disappearing into a private collection “harrowing”, telling the BBC it was one of the best skeletons of a species scientists had only recently recognised.

Megan Jenkins, a palaeontologist at the University of Portsmouth, said there were two sides to the debate. She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that excavation required considerable time, effort and money, and said many privately sold fossils eventually enter public view or museums.

Jodi was found on rancher Jodi Pierson’s land in Montana and excavated by commercial palaeontologist Clayton Phipps. Phipps also discovered the Dueling Dinosaurs fossil, found nearby in 2006 and later important to research distinguishing Nanotyrannus from T. rex.

The auction follows Sotheby’s sale of a T. rex skeleton, Gus, for $50.1m (£37.4m) in July. After that sale, Brusatte said museums and universities could not afford prices of that scale, raising concerns about public access and scientific study.