The small skeleton of an iguanodon dinosaur will be auctioned in Paris next month.
This particular 9.8-foot-long fossil was discovered in Colorado in 2019, according to Reuters. Its page on Giquello, the auction house selling it, estimates that it will sell for 400,000 to 500,000 euros. The auction will start at 2 p.m. on Oct. 20.
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“It’s a dinosaur for a living room,” auctioneer Alexandre Giquello said, referring to its relatively small size.
Unlike huge dinosaur skeletons sold at previous auctions, this fossilized iguanodon skeleton stands just 4.3 feet high and could fetch a price of up to $500,000 at an auction https://t.co/v2fFmg0BiH pic.twitter.com/6CFltO47cR
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 7, 2022
The herbivorous dinosaur lived around 110 million to 140 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous period, according to the British Natural History Museum.
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The iguanodon is best known for its distinctive thumb spike, which has long puzzled scientists. When discovered in 1825, paleontologist Gideon Mantell placed the spike on the dinosaur’s nose, thinking it was equivalent to a horn, according to Smithsonian Magazine. Since discovering its true place, situated as a human’s thumb is, many different hypotheses have arisen as to what its use was, varying from defense to cutting open seeds to stripping foliage.
The Paris auction house is no stranger to dinosaurs, having sold an 11-foot-tall, 32.8-foot-long dinosaur skeleton for 3 million euros in 2020.
