Christie's has removed a T. rex specimen from its scheduled auction list due to a paleontologist's concerns that a piece of the dinosaur could be from another T. rex.
Paleontologist Pete Larson questioned whether all of the bones in the skeleton belonged to Shen, a T. rex specimen weighing an estimated 3,000 pounds (1,400 kilograms) and set to be auctioned by Christie's in Hong Kong on November 30. According to the New York Times, Christie's T. rex skeleton, Shen, was expected to fetch $15 million to $25 million at auction.
"After a conversation with the consignor of the Tyrannosaurus rex set for sale on 30 November in Hong Kong, Christie's has decided to remove the lot," said Christie's spokesman Edward Lewine in an email to Gizmodo. "The consignor has decided to donate the item to a museum at this time."
According to Lewine, more research on the specimen would be beneficial.
Christie's decision to pull Shen from auction after Larson, president of the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research, questioned the dinosaur's authenticity. According to the New York Times, Larson discovered similarities between Shen's skull and another T. rex skeleton, Stan, owned by the Black Hills Institute. Larson and his team discovered Stan in 1992, and they studied what they discovered for the next three decades.
Shen, according to Larson, has a series of holes in his lower left jaw that only Stan has. Larson hypothesizes that Shen's owner purchased casts of Stan's bones (which the Black Hills Institute preserves and sells duplicates of) to replace any bones, including the head, that was lost after the accident. Christie's currently notes at the end of their original news release that they obtained replica bones from the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research, Inc., which they then attached to the real bones (these are known as STANTM elements). STANTM BHI Elements Before duplicating any STANTM components, please consult with BHI.
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