A Tyrannosaurus rex unearthed on a ranch in northwestern South Dakota has become the most expensive fossil sold at auction after fetching $50.13 million in New York, according to the auction house.
From Harding County to Sotheby’s
The skeleton, nicknamed Gus after the late Gary “Gus” Licking — whose family owns the Harding County ranch where the bones were found — was excavated beginning in 2021 by paleontologists with Theropoda Expeditions, a Texas-based company that specializes in commercial digging and fossil preparation. Over about five years the team recovered and reassembled the remains before consigning the specimen to Sotheby’s for Tuesday’s sale.
Sotheby’s said the mounted skeleton stretches about 38 feet long and stands roughly 12.5 feet tall, with a skull measuring about 54 inches. The specimen includes 183 fossil elements — a level of preservation Sotheby’s described as among the most complete known for Tyrannosaurus rex.
| Attribute | Reported detail |
|---|---|
| Sale price | $50,130,000 |
| Length | 38 feet |
| Height | 12.5 feet |
| Skull | 54 inches |
| Bone elements | 183 (about 61% complete by count) |
Scientific value and private ownership
The fossil comes from the Hell Creek Formation, a stretch of rock across parts of Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming and northwestern South Dakota that has produced many important dinosaur finds. While the mounted specimen’s preservation places it among noteworthy T. rex discoveries, its sale into private hands revives a persistent concern among researchers: specimens held privately are often difficult or impossible for scientists to study in ways that meet reproducibility standards for publication.
- Gus was estimated to be roughly 67 million years old and dates to the late Cretaceous Period.
- According to Sotheby’s, the specimen includes rare elements such as a complete pelvis and both feet and shows evidence of healed injuries.
- The pre-sale estimate was in the $20 million to $30 million range; the winning bid was placed by phone and the buyer has not been publicly identified.
The sale also set a new public-auction record for fossils, exceeding the $44.6 million paid for a Stegosaurus specimen in 2024. That previous purchase — by a private collector who later arranged a multi-year museum loan — underscores the mixed outcomes when high-value specimens enter the commercial market: public display is possible, but long-term scientific access can be uncertain.
Local context and wider implications
For Harding County and the surrounding region, the find underscores the rich paleontological resources of the Hell Creek beds. It also raises questions for landowners, museums and lawmakers about how fossils discovered on private property should be handled, documented and conserved.
For now, the tangible result is a headline-grabbing price and a mounted skeleton that traveled from a South Dakota ranch to an international auction stage. The less visible result — whether and how researchers will be able to study Gus in the future — remains unresolved.
Reporting for this article drew on auctionhouse disclosures and accounts of the excavation and sale. Details about the buyer and any future loans or research plans had not been released as of publication.
