fbpx

Christie Will Sell A Dinosaur That Inspired ‘Jurassic Park’ Raptor


Many people know them as agile bipedal dinosaurs with menacing claws and curved arms. hunting the kids Through a kitchen in “Jurassic Park”.

In the 1993 movie they were called velociraptors, but these creatures were more like a different, related species, Deinonychus antirrhopus – Michael Crichton, author of “Jurassic Park” considered less dramatic vote.

The movie helped make velociraptors (technically Deinonychuses) one of the most recognizable dinosaurs, along with T. rex. And now, dinosaur enthusiasts can bid on one of their own.

Auction house Christie’s announced On Friday, it announced it would sell the Deinonychus skeleton, which it named Hector, that was excavated in Montana a few years ago. The company said it would be the first public sale of such a sample. The estimated price tag is between $4 million and $6 million, which probably prompts most “Jurassic Park” fans to lay down their paddles.

“The dinosaur everyone wanted to see,” James Hyslop, head of science and natural history at Christie’s, said in an interview. “No matter how memorable that moment is, shaking glass of water The part of the T. rex that really scares us is the part where the raptors prey on those kids.”

Paleontologists have differing views on the practice of auctioning dinosaur skeletons; Some vehemently oppose the practice because it opens up the possibility of specimens falling into the hands of someone who has nothing to do with scientific and public access but who has more money to bid than a museum. (Hector has been on display at the Danish Museum of Natural History for a year and a half, starting June 2020.)

“It would be a great embarrassment to science and the public if this disappeared in an oligarch’s basement,” said Steve Brusatte, professor of paleontology and evolution at the University of Edinburgh.

In 2020, a T. rex skeleton nicknamed Stan, Set a record $31.8 millionIt nearly quadrupled its high estimate of $8 million. The recipient was anonymous and remained a secret. until this yearwhen National Geographic reported He said authorities in Abu Dhabi are planning to include Stan in a new natural history museum.

The auction house takes a page from Crichton’s book and calls this herd “raptor” and names him Hector, both of which are easier to pronounce than Deinonychus. Dating to the Early Cretaceous period about 110 million years ago, the specimen was excavated by a commercial paleontologist Jared Hudson about nine years ago on private land in Wolf Canyon, Montana, and later acquired by the anonymous current owner. According to the sales catalogue. 126 bones from the skeleton are real and the rest have been reconstructed.

Meeting Hector—about four feet tall and 10 feet long with a tapered tail—is not like meeting Hector, who is 13 feet tall. Sue at the Field Museum in Chicago. Hyslop likens it to the experience of meeting a kangaroo at the zoo rather than an elephant.

Unreal bones have been cast or 3D printed, making the creature a work of art rather than a purely fossil. Much of the skull has been reconstructed, which is common in dinosaurs of this type and size, Christie says. Mistake To sue and Stan’s skeletons aren’t 100 percent whole.

Fossils of the species discovered by paleontologist John H. Ostrom In 1964, he named it Deinonychus, meaning dreadful claw, after the sharply curved tool the dinosaur used to slash its prey. Ostrom’s discovery formed the basis of how scientists understand dinosaurs today—some less reptilian and more bird-like: fast-moving and possibly warm-blooded and feathered.

“Before that we looked at them as clumsy lizards, and now we know them as very active, carnivorous birds of prey,” said Peter Larson, a senior commercial paleontologist who mentored Hudson and helped identify Hector’s bones when he discovered them in Montana. .

Larson led the excavation team behind Sue in 1990, before the FBI seized Sue and other specimens, and is a central character in the debate over fossil ownership, claiming that the team failed to obtain a federal permit to dig. years court battles followed, eventually putting Sue up for auction, but Larson prosecution opened on charges of currency infringement involving overseas sales of fossils and sentenced to prison two years in prison. (He has wanted a pardon.)

This Field Museum bought Sue At $8.36 million—about $15 million in today’s dollars—and Larson said he saw value at the high price tags: more people would be interested in digging for new specimens. But this line of thinking has been criticized by some paleontologists for fear that it will lead to the proliferation of illegal excavations and increase prices so that public institutions cannot bid competitively.

When the dinosaur went up for auction on May 12, Hyslop said he hoped it would go to someone who wanted to share it with the public. “That little kid in me wants to see it over and over,” he said.



Source link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

(0)