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The world's most expensive dinosaur is now on display at the American Museum of Natural History.
A 150-million-year-old stegosaurus named Apex was unveiled Thursday as the newest addition to the museum's collection of dinosaurs. The skeleton of the slow-moving vegan is on loan from billionaire hedge funder Ken Griffin, who bought it at a Sotheby's auction in July for $44.6 million.
The sale was a Sotheby's record, which had projected bids topping out around $6 million. The previous record holder was a tyrannosaurus rex that sold for $32 million in 2020.
"Stegosaurus is also exciting because, let's face it, it's an iconic dinosaur and it's comfortably in the top five dinosaurs of all time," Roger Benson, curator of dinosaur paleontology, said. "It may not be everyone's top favorite dinosaur, there are other options, but I think it's up there."
A commercial paleontologist found the fossil of the late Jurassic herbivore in Colorado in 2022. The creature was in remarkably good condition. The skeleton is made up of 254 pieces and nearly 80% complete. At 27 feet long and 11.5 feet high, the reptile is 30% bigger than any previous find.
"Apex holds the key to piecing together pieces of information we've had from other individuals of stegosaurus," Benson said. "It holds the key to understanding things like the structure of the skeleton of a stegosaurus and how that changed through the growth of the animal."