U.S.|‘Jodi,’ a Nanotyrannus Skeleton, Gets $47.3 Million at Auction

A skeleton belonging to a smaller relative of Tyrannosaurus rex was sold at auction on Tuesday for nearly $47.3 million, far beyond projections. It was the latest lucrative sale of a fossil coming out of the field of commercial paleontology.

The final price, $47,255,000, was higher than other recent auctions of larger dinosaur fossils, though below a $50.1 million sum for a T. rex specimen at Sotheby’s in June.

The fossil is nicknamed Jodi, after Jodi Pierson, the rancher who found the remains in 2019 on her land in Montana. It comes from the Hell Creek Formation, a layer of rocks known as a graveyard for fossil remains. Initially, Sotheby’s estimated the animal, from a group of dinosaur species called Nanotyrannus, would sell for $6 million to $9 million. The buyer and seller were not identified.

The Nanotyrannus was discovered miles away from the site of another significant paleontological find, in 2006 — the “dueling dinosaurs,” which appeared to be a Triceratops and a Tyrannosaurus locked in a death match. The process of excavating Jodi was documented in the Discovery Channel show “Dino Hunters” in 2020. Ms. Pierson’s cousin is Clayton Phipps, a commercial excavator who also discovered the “dueling dinosaurs.”

Jodi is 9.5 feet tall and 19.6 feet long. The group she is a part of has been at the center of a dispute that has animated the field of paleontology for almost a half century: Are Nanotyrannus just adolescent T. rexes, or an entirely different species of tyrannosaur?

A team from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History found a skull in 1942 then thought to be an adolescent Tyrannosaurus rex. In 1988, further study revealed the possibility that it may have actually been a cousin of T. rex — setting off decades of debate.