‘Apex’- the 150-billion-year-old Stegosaurus Fossil named by the palaeontologist who discovered it, recently became the most expensive fossil to be ever sold! On Wednesday, at Sotheby’s, hedge fund Billionaire- Ken Griffin, who is recognised by Forbes as the 41st richest person in the world, forked out $44.6 million for the fossil, smashing the expected price of $4 million to $6 million.
The fossil named ‘Apex’ was auctioned by Sotheby’s. It stands 11 feet tall and stretches 20 feet long.
This deal makes ‘Apex’ the most exorbitant fossil to have ever been sold! ‘Apex’ even surpassed the $31.8 million sale of ‘Stan’- a Tyrannosaurus- in 2020.
On that premise, you must be interested in knowing the real worth of fossils. Are they really that expensive? Well yes, some fossils have been sold at an extortionate price. We will have a close look at those in this article!
‘Stan’ is a Tyrannosaurus rex fossil, which was sold by Christie's auction house to Abu Dhabi in 2020. It is anticipated that the fossil will be displayed at a new museum of natural history which will be inaugurated in 2025. ‘Stan’ comprises 70% skeleton and a completed skull.
‘Sue’- named after the palaeontologist who discovered it- is the first ever dinosaur to be ever sold at an auction. The fossil was almost complete, the most one can expect in a T.rex fossil. In 1977, Sotheby’s sold ‘Sue’ to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.
‘Hector’ is a Deinonychus fossil, the species on which the vivid velociraptors of “Jurassic Park” are based. The fossil surpassed sales projections by a wide margin when in 2022 it was sold to an anonymous buyer who paid more than twice its expected worth, i.e.- $4 million to $6 million. ‘Hector’ was later put on display at the Natural History Museum of Denmark.
‘Big John’ is the largest triceratops fossil to ever exist! In 2021, it was sold to an unnamed private collector in Paris. The fossil is now put on display at the Glazer Children’s Museum in Tampa.
‘TRX-293 Trinity’ is a composite Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, assembled from bones which were discovered at three separate sites. It was sold to a private collector in Zurich last year.
This fossil includes a partial skeleton of a dinosaur family closely related to the Tyrannosaurus rex. It stands 22 feet tall with a height of 9 feet. In 2022, the fossil was purchased by a buyer whose name remains undisclosed.
‘Maximus’ is a well-preserved and the most complete T-rex skull to be ever found. It is 75% intact and weighs around 160.25 pounds. When an anonymous buyer bought the fossil in 2022, he paid a price which significantly exceeded its sales estimate of $15 million to $20 million.
Griffin’s, who bought the most expensive fossil ‘Apex’ to be ever auctioned, net worth is estimated at $37.9 billion as of Thursday. He is ranked by Forbes as the world’s 41st richest man. Founder of the Miami-based hedge fund Citadel in 1990 and Citadel Securities in 2002, Griffin has contributed a significant proportion to philanthropic causes- the value stands at more than $2 billion.
