Sotheby’s to Auction 67-Million-Year-Old T. rex Named Gus on July 14

Sotheby’s will open live bidding on July 14 for lot 20, a 67-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton named Gus, along with other fossils. The specimen comprises 183 fossil bone elements and is approximately 61 percent complete by bone count. It was discovered on a ranch in South Dakota and is mounted in a custom steel armature with replicas of missing bones, posed as if in pursuit.

Gus is expected to fetch up to $30 million. Wired reported that private collectors have outbid museums for major dinosaur fossils in recent years, with the auction house previously selling a Stegosaurus named Apex to Ken Griffin for $44.6 million in 2024 and the only known juvenile Ceratosaurus for $30.5 million last year.

In 1997 Sotheby’s sold the T. Rex named Sue for roughly $8.4 million; that specimen went to the Field Museum in Chicago and remains the most complete on record. A 2025 study found more T. rex fossils held in private collections than in public trusts.

Thomas Holtz, a tyrannosaur specialist at the University of Maryland, described Gus as scientifically significant due to the completeness of the skeleton and bone quality. Stuart Sumida, a paleontologist at California State University, San Bernardino, disputed Sotheby’s interpretation of holes in the jaw as tyrannosaurid bite marks, noting they are round and smooth-edged and more consistent with infection.

Kristi Curry Rogers, a paleontologist at Macalester College, stated that established journals will not publish studies on specimens not held in publicly accessible museums.

Sumida and Rogers, president and vice president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, are working to connect private collectors with museums to encourage post-auction donations. Cassandra Hatton, vice chairman and head of the science and natural history department at Sotheby’s, said fossils not excavated are lost to everyone and that U.S. court rulings established private land ownership of fossils.