Sotheby’s Sets Records With Fossil, Meteorite Sales

At Sotheby’s 'Geek Week' auction in New York, a juvenile Ceratosaurus nasicornis skeleton sold for $30.5 million following a six-minute bidding war, making it the third-highest price for a dinosaur at auction. The skeleton, discovered in Wyoming in 1996 and assembled from nearly 140 bones, is the only known juvenile of its species, and its new anonymous owner plans to loan it to an institution. NWA 16788, the largest Martian meteorite ever found on Earth at 54 pounds, sold for a record $5.3 million, surpassing its estimated value and representing nearly 7% of all known Martian material on Earth. Both buyers have remained anonymous. These sales set new benchmarks for natural history auctions and reflect soaring demand for rare specimens. Some experts have raised concerns that such high-profile auctions could limit scientific access to important fossils and affect relationships between paleontologists and landowners.