‘T. Rex’ Bones Are a Bargain at $93,250

A collection of fossil bones and fragments thought to be parts of the first Tyrannosaurus rex ever discovered sold at auction Sunday for $93,250 -- far below the predicted selling price of $400,000 to $900,000.

The bones, representing about 20% of the dinosaur skeleton, were sold by Bonhams & Butterfields auction house in Los Angeles to a consortium of South Dakota investors whom auction house representatives say are determined to ensure that the bones stay in the United States.

Thomas Lindgren, director of the auction house’s natural history department, said the buyers, who bid by phone, would not make their identities public until they decide what to do with the specimens.

Last week, expectations ran high that the sale of the T. rex bones -- collectively nicknamed “Barnum” -- would spark a high-priced bidding war after South Dakota paleontologist Japheth Boyce matched a cast of a portion of the jawbone from the dinosaur specimens up for auction with a section of jawbone from the first T. rex ever discovered, now housed at London’s British Museum.

The specimens in London, discovered in 1900 by paleontologist Barnum Brown, represent about 13% of a complete T. rex. Last week, experts said the British Museum might bid on the remains available for sale here.

Due to a legal dispute over ownership, the auction of the bones in Los Angeles was a court-ordered sale, required to close Sunday, with the specimens going to the highest bidder.

“All I know is that they’ve been scrambling for the last 48 hours to be able to put together an offer,” said Lindgren of the buyers. “I have no idea what they were willing to pay, but I know they were very pleased to be able to get it for under $100,000.”

Lindgren said he believed the array of T. rex bones, which includes portions of arms, legs, pelvis and feet, may have sold for a “bargain” price because private collectors hesitated to bid because they were “afraid to take it away from a potential museum.”

Lindgren remains confident that the current buyers plan to house the bones and fragments in an American museum, probably in the Western states. Both the bones up for auction and the dinosaur parts housed in the British museum were found in the same area of Wyoming. “Sue,” the most complete T. rex ever found, was excavated in South Dakota. “Sue” sold for $8.3 million to Chicago’s Field Museum at a public auction in 1997.

Lindgren said any museum that gets the collection of “Barnum” bones was likely to allow paleontologists to continue to study the connection between these remains and the bones at the British Museum.

Also included in Sunday’s auction of natural history treasures was a 40-foot-long cast of a T. rex nicknamed Stan. The cast, expected to bring $90,000 to $110,000, sold for $70,250 to the Weinman Mineral Museum of Carterville, Ga.