If You've Ever Wanted to Own a Complete Dinosaur Skeleton, or Four, Now's Your Chance

By Robert Wilonsky Wed., Jun. 1 2011 at 10:10 AM

Categories: Nature + Science

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Heritage expects the Allosaurus and Stegosaurus skeletons will go for upwards of $3 million. But that's for the pair. A bargain.

I've taken the almost-8-year-old who lives in my house to several of 'cross-the-street neighbor Heritage Auction Galleries' dinosaur auction previews, because, right, kids love dinosaurs. Which is why I expect at some point, between June 9 and 11, we'll find ourselves once again wandering the fossils: It's time for the latest natural history auction. But this one's a whole different ball of petrified wax: For one, the sneak peek has moved to my boy's favorite spot in the city -- Fair Park, specifically the Tower Building. And this time, for the first time, Heritage is selling four complete or almost-complete dino skeletons. Hence the public preview that takes place beginning a week from tomorrow.

Here's how our old pal Noah Fleisher at Heritage describes some of the highlights of what he insists is an "unprecedented event":

The auction and exhibition includes an Allosaurus and a Stegosaurus collectively known as "The Fighting Pair," known as such due to their proximity to one another when they were discovered in the Dana Quarry in Wyoming (estimate: $2.8 million), a virtually complete Triceratops skeleton, more than 19 feet long (estimate: $700,000+), a complete duck-billed Maiasaurus (estimate: $450,000+) and the largest set of prehistoric shark jaws ever assembled, from the ferocious Megalodon (estimate: $700,000+), the largest predator that has ever existed, an impressive 11 feet across and almost nine-feet tall when fully assembled. The jaws were the life's work of diver Vito "Megalodon Man" Bertucci, who spent almost 20 years assembling them before passing away in October of 2004 while diving for Shark Teeth in South Carolina.

Man, if only I had the room. The whole catalog's here.

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