Skeleton of 67-million-year-old T-rex sells for $6.2 million in Switzerland

A 67 million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex (T-rex) skeleton has been sold for $6.2 million (5.55 million Swiss francs) in Switzerland, according to a report from the BBC.

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The British broadcaster said the dinosaur skeleton is more than 11 meters long and nearly 4 meters tall in its report on Tuesday. This was the first time a T-rex had been auctioned in Europe.

The T-rex has been dubbed 293 Trinity because it is made up of 293 separate bones from three different dinosaur sites in the US in Montana and Wyoming.

Most dinosaur skeletons that are auctioned are made up of partly casts or replacements bones, but a relatively high percentage of real bones make up Trinity 293.

“There are only 20 or 30 good T. rex skeletons in the world, and this is one of the bigger and better ones,” Dr. Hans-Jacob Siber of The Aathal Dinosaur Museum in Switzerland said in an interview on the firm’s website.

Siber described the skeleton – sold at Koller auction house in Zurich in the north of Switzerland – as a “special beast.”

A private individual bought the T-rex skeleton and will keep it in Europe, according to a spokesperson for the auction house, the BBC said.

According to the BBC, Koller auction house hopes it will go on public display, but it is not clear at this stage what the owner’s plans are.

Just last year a skeleton of the same dinosaur was expected to auction for up to $25 million before it was withdrawn after doubts were raised about where its parts had come from, the BBC said.

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