Private bidder snags 77-million-year-old dino skeleton for $6 million

A private bidder this week paid a whopping $6 million for a dinosaur skeleton – a buy some scientists are criticizing for the loss of public research the purchase represents.

Sotheby’s said on its website that the 9-foot Gorgosaurus skeleton went for just under $6.1 million, part of a large slate of dinosaur bones being auctioned by the selling house this week. 

The buyer of the skeleton is unknown. The specimen comes from Montana and is estimated to be about 77 million years old. 

Some scientists, meanwhile, expressed strong opprobrium at the monumental skeleton falling into private hands. 

“I’m totally disgusted, distressed and disappointed because of the far-reaching damage the loss of these specimens will have for science,” Carthage College paleontologist Thomas Carr told the New York Times.

The bidder also won the right to name the skeleton. Fossils are often given names by researchers and buyers; two of the most famous T. rex fossils, for instance, are named "Sue" and "Stan."