A huge puzzle of nearly 200 bones to assemble.
Through a large window, an astonishing spectacle attracted the eye of passers-by from the Marais district in the heart of Paris this Tuesday.
Little by little, “Big John” appears on the other side of the windows of this exhibition gallery.
A face not unknown to the generation of the film Jurassic Park.
He is the largest known triceratops, an iconic dinosaur, over 66 million years old with a skeleton eight meters long.
The main part of the skeleton, the skull of impressive dimensions (2.62 m long by 2 m wide, and two 1.1 m horns), fixes the residents and calls out.
It has taken place and will be on display at 13, rue des archives in Paris from September 16 until October 20, before an auction the next day at the Hotel Drouot.
Read also Paris: the dinosaur skeleton at 1.2 million euros causes a "quarrel of experts"
Estimated between 1.2 and 1.5 million euros, this unique specimen for this size, more than 60% complete (75% for the skull), was discovered in 2014 in the USA, in South Dakota, by geologist Walter W. Stein Bill.
The restoration of the fossil was carried out in Trieste (Italy).
The prehistoric animal lived in Laramidia, an extinct island-continent that stretched from present-day Alaska to Mexico.
His death in a floodplain, probably after a fight as indicated by a laceration near the skull, allowed the skeleton to be preserved in the mud, a sediment without biological activity.
A craze for dinosaur sales
For the first time on the market, “Big John” will be auctioned on October 21 by the auction house Giquello. From October 18 to 20, the triceratops will be exhibited in the salons of the Hotel Drouot, in Paris. “For this triceratops, which has a worldwide export license, we have around ten possible buyers,” said Alexandre Giquello, auctioneer. "At the same time, we present a 150 million-year-old diplodocus femur and a 100,000-year-old mammoth skull."
This annual sale called Naturalia comes as the craze for dinosaur skeletons continues.
Prices reached record amounts, to the chagrin of museums and research centers, often unable to outbid.
Last October, a rare allosaur skeleton, one of the oldest dinosaurs, considered the “grandfather” of the dreaded T-Rex, was auctioned in Paris to an anonymous bidder for just over 3 million euros. euros (with costs), twice the high estimate.
A triceratops skull will be exhibited in Paris ❤️
Then sold.
Which calls into question my priorities: becoming an owner in Paris?
Or own a triceratops head?
- Puzzled T-rex (@CrameAuSoleil) August 31, 2021
A few weeks before, in New York, a 67 million-year-old T-Rex skeleton was sold for $ 31.8 million, smashing records for a dinosaur, when the estimate had been set between 6 and 8 millions of dollars. In 2020, however, several dinosaurs offered in Paris had not found takers, the reserve prices not having been reached. For "Big John", answer on the 21st!