Sept. 18, 2020 – Walking by Rockefeller Center in New York City right now is a walk way back in time – about 65 million years to be exact. On display at Christie’s, an auction company, is “STAN,” one of the largest, most complete and widely studied Tyrannosaurus rex (T. rex) skeletons ever discovered. On Oct. 6, STAN will auctioned to the highest bidder.
Its estimated value at auction is from six to eight million dollars, according to a Christie’s press release. It’s very unusual to have such a massive skeleton available at auction. STAN has been at the Black Hills Institute in South Dakota where it has been displayed and studied for the past 20 years. Many scientists have written academic articles about the massive skeleton.
“We are honoured to be bringing STAN to auction and to have been entrusted with the stewardship of such and iconic and important T. rex. I’ll never forget the moment I came face to face with him for the first time, after his remount in Colorado – he looked even larger and more ferocious than I’d imagined, a specimen that only further establishes the T. rex’s position as the King of Dinosaurs,” James Hyslop, Christie’s official, said in a press release.
STAN is a gargantuan dinosaur skeleton. Standing 13 feet high, it is almost 40 feet long with its tail outstretched. Containing 188 original bones, STAN is one of the largest and most complete T. rex skeletons known to exist. STAN’s skull can hold 58 teeth and its eyeballs are the size of baseballs.
T. rex dinosaurs lived during the late Cretaceous Period, about 65 million years ago. The Cretaceous Period occurred within the Mesozoic Era which ended with a mass extinction event. One scenario for that event is that a comet or meteorite struck Earth, possibly in what is now Mexico. It caused the extinction of more than one-half of all animal and plant species on Earth. Dinosaurs were completely wiped out never to roam the Earth again.
Finding STAN
According to Christie’s, STAN’s first bones were discovered in spring 1987 by amateur paleontologist Stan Sacrison. He found the bones on private property in the Badlands, an area that encompasses both North and South Dakota.
At first, the bones were not identified correctly by a vertebrate paleontologist. Thinking the skeleton was a Triceratops, a commonly found dinosaur, the bones were left for another five years. In 1992, paleontologists from the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research identified the bones as a T. rex skeleton. Three months later, the bones were excavated from the area.
Each individual bone had to be carefully removed from the host rock, cleaned, preserved, restored and recorded. Following more than 30,000 hours of manual labor, the near-complete male fossil skeleton in a remarkable state of preservation was pieced together.
The state of the fossilized bones indicates STAN suffered a broken neck during his lifetime and survived. In the process of healing, two of his vertebrae bonded together, while a third vertebrae became Word of the Day immobilized by additional bone growth. There is evidence of injury or disease that the animal withstood during its life. One of STAN’s ribs exhibit a puncture wound that may have been inflicted by another T. rex.
After it is sold at auction, STAN will remain on display at Rockefeller Center through Oct. 21, 2020. Where will he go next? Stay tuned!
To watch a short video of STAN being installed at Christie’s in Rockefeller Center, visit Christie’s. (Scroll down to view.)