A private collector is auctioning real fossil bones from baby Tyrannosaurus. The remains of what's thought to be the "world's only juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex" are more than 68 million years old.
The item will cost at least 2.95 million dollars, according to Science Magazine.
Despite the fact that the find belongs to a private collection, palaeontologists and scientists from the Museum of Natural History of the University of Kansas and elsewhere have condemned the offer, according to reports.
A KU museum has pulled the display of a baby T-Rex fossil that was "abruptly" listed on eBay for $2.9 million: https://t.co/9qkvf3qsdO pic.twitter.com/wvSVYvlrlL
— Lawrence Journal-World (@LJWorld) April 10, 2019
"Only casts and other replicas of vertebrate fossils should be traded, not the fossils themselves," read an open letter from the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) in Bethesda, Maryland. "Scientifically important fossils like the juvenile tyrannosaur are clues to our collective natural heritage and deserve to be held in public trust."
Alan Detrich and his brother discovered the remains of the dinosaur in 2013 on private land in Montana, so by law this find belongs to them. After the excavation, the men offered the museum the opportunity to take the remains for temporary storage.
When the KU Natural History Museum learned about the sale of the fossils, the scientists returned the remains to the collector.
— KU Natural History (@kunhm) April 9, 2019
Scientists say that the price is very high, since the condition and quality of bones are not the best. In addition, palaeontologists noted that the remains of a young Nanotyrannus lancensis, a close relatives of the Tyrannosaurs, exist.
