Auction experts predicted the rare Nanotyrannus skeleton known as Jodi
would sell for up to $9 million, but it instead fetched $47.3 million at Sotheby’s in New York on Tuesday following a 12-minute bidding battle among six prospective buyers. The price establishes the specimen as the second-priciest set of dinosaur bones ever sold at auction.
Rare Dinosaur Skeleton Sells for Millions in New York
The auction at Sotheby’s in Manhattan drew intense international interest. Six bidders competed online and over the phones during a 12-minute live session before the specimen ultimately sold on the phone to a buyer. Auction house experts had initially estimated the fossil would fetch between $6 million and $9 million, but the final hammer price reached $47.3 million.
The blockbuster result places the specimen behind only the Tyrannosaurus rex known as Gus
, which set a world record earlier this summer by achieving $50.13 million at Sotheby’s.
Su Binghai, a Chinese investor connected to Singapore’s biggest money-laundering probe who agreed in November 2025 to forfeit assets including dinosaur skeletons, emerged as the buyer.
Fossil Discovered in the Hell Creek Formation
Unearthed in 2019 by rancher Jodi Pierson on her private property located near Jordan, Montana, within the Hell Creek Formation of Garfield County, the mounted specimen reaches roughly 19.6 feet in length and 9 feet 6 inches in height. Commercial paleontologist Clayton Phipps excavated the remains, which comprise roughly 191 fossil bone elements and feature an almost complete skull with 35 teeth.
Before coming to auction, it was exhibited at Frieze Masters in 2023 by antiquities and fossil dealer David Aaron under the name Chomper
with an asking price of $20 million, at a time when it was still commonly misidentified as a juvenile T. rex.
Nanotyrannus Differs from T. Rex in Physical Structure
The animal was a smaller, more slender carnivore equipped with longer forelimbs, larger hand claws, and more slender, blade-like teeth for slicing through meat compared to its larger cousin. Nanotyrannus coexisted alongside T. rex during the Cretaceous period approximately 67 million years ago.
Megan Jacobs, a palaeontologist at the University of Portsmouth, noted that Nanotyrannus was for a very long time believed to be a teenager of T. rex. A second study published in Science in December 2025 examined a small throat bone from the Cleveland skull; its microscopic structure suggested the animal had stopped growing and was an adult rather than a young T. rex.
With only three substantial Nanotyrannus skeletons known to science, the transition of Jodi
into private hands has reignited sharp concerns among researchers regarding scientific access. Paleontologists argue that significant specimens risk disappearing into private vaults where researchers cannot study them and the public cannot view them.
We’ve really just found out that Nanotyrannus is real, and now one of the best skeletons is about to be sold to the highest bidder, and it’s harrowing to think it could disappear into the vaults of a collector rather than displayed on a museum where it can wow and inspire kids and families and the public at large.
Prof Steve Brusatte, a palaeontologist at the University of Edinburgh
Sotheby’s paid tribute to the group of professional fossil hunters whose excavation and discovery efforts served as the subject of the 2020 Discovery Channel documentary series “Dino Hunters”. Cassandra Hatton, vice-chairman and Worldwide Head of Science & Natural History at Sotheby’s, thanked the team during the sale.
This exceptional result is a wonderful recognition of that work, and of the enduring fascination with the Nanotyrannus.
Cassandra Hatton, Worldwide Head of Science & Natural History at Sotheby’s
The buyer has not yet been publicly identified by the auction house following the sale.