Meet ‘Gus’: the T. rex fossil that just sold for a record $50.1 million

A Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton nicknamed ‘Gus’ sold for $50.1 million at a Sotheby’s auction in New York, setting a new record as the most expensive dinosaur fossil ever sold. The 67-million-year-old specimen easily surpassed the previous record held by the stegosaurus ‘Apex,’ which sold for nearly $45 million in 2024, and outpaced ‘Stan,’ a T. rex skeleton that fetched close to $32 million in 2020.

Gus is a 38-foot-long (11.5-metre) Tyrannosaurus rex and one of the largest and most complete specimens ever discovered, according to Sotheby’s. The adult dinosaur stands around 12.5 feet (3.8 metres) tall and is 63 per cent complete, with the preserved bones accounting for an estimated 75 to 80 per cent of the animal’s total mass. Its most notable features include an exceptionally preserved skull with powerful jaws and teeth, two well-preserved feet, and several rarely found bones, including a furcula, or wishbone.

The skeleton was found in 2021 on a ranch in South Dakota, after a fossil-hunting team decided, almost on a whim, to spend a couple of days exploring a different area once they had wrapped up a nearby excavation. The first fossil they uncovered, a metatarsal bone from the dinosaur’s foot, turned up just hours into the search. A five-year excavation, mapping and restoration project followed, during which nearly 1,000 individual fossil pieces were recovered, catalogued and carefully reassembled by hand.

Before the auction, Gus had been expected to fetch between $20 million and $30 million, making the final sale price far higher than the pre-sale estimate. The winning bidder, whose identity has not been disclosed, outbid six other prospective buyers during a 10-minute bidding battle. At one point, auctioneer Phyllis Kao urged bidders to raise their offers, saying, ‘Try a bigger bite. It’s a T. rex, after all.’

Sotheby’s vice chair Cassandra Hatton said the record-breaking sale reflected the fossil’s extraordinary quality. ‘Gus is not only an exceptional find, but a specimen that’s been excavated, documented, prepared, and cared for with real excellence,’ she said. ‘The market responds when great specimens are taken care of in the right way.’

Tyrannosaurus rex, whose name translates to ‘King of the Tyrant Lizards,’ ruled western North America during the Late Cretaceous period around 67 million years ago. Not everyone celebrated the sale, however. Ahead of the auction, the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology had urged that scientifically important fossils like Gus remain in public museums and research institutions, where they can continue to be studied.

Wikimedia Commons/by Eirik Newth