They are known to many as agile bipedal dinosaurs with ferocious claws and crooked arms that hunted children in the kitchens of “Jurassic Park.”
In the 1993 film, they were called Velociraptors, but the creatures were more of a different, related species, Deinonychus — a name that Michael Crichton, author of the novel Jurassic Park, believes less dramatic.
The film helped turn the Velociraptor (well, technically Deinonychus) into one of the most recognizable dinosaurs, alongside the Tyrannosaurus rex. Now, dinosaur lovers can make their own bids.
Auction house Christie’s announced Friday that it will sell a Deinonychus skeleton, dubbed Hector, unearthed in Montana a few years ago. The company says this will be the first public sale of such a specimen. An estimated price of $4 million to $6 million will likely prompt most Jurassic Park fans to drop their paddles.
“This is the dinosaur that everyone wants to see,” James Hayslop, Christie’s director of science and natural history, said in an interview. “Like that moment was memorable, the water glass was shaking from the T. rex, and what really scares us is the moment the birds of prey hunted those kids.”
Paleontologists are divided over the practice of auctioning dinosaur bones. Some strongly oppose the practice because it opens up the possibility that specimens could fall into the hands of people who are not interested in science and public access but who have more money than museums. (From June 2020, Hector has been on display at the Natural History Museum of Denmark for a year and a half.)
“It would be a huge shame for science and the public if this thing vanished into the basement of an oligarch,” said Steve Brusatte, professor of paleontology and evolution at the University of Edinburgh.
In 2020, a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton nicknamed Stan brought in a record $31.8 million, nearly four times its high estimate of $8 million. The buyer was anonymous, and it remained a mystery until this year, when National Geographic reported that officials in Abu Dhabi were planning to include Stan in a new natural history museum.
The auction house, borrowing from Crichton’s book, called the lot “Raptor” and named it Hector, both easier to pronounce than Deinonychus. The specimen was excavated by commercial paleontologist Jared Hudson about nine years ago on private land in Wolf Canyon, Montana, in the early Cretaceous period, about 110 million years ago, and later Acquired by its current owner (anonymous), according to the sales catalog. Of the skeletons, 126 are real and the rest are reconstructed.
Meeting Hector—about 4 feet tall and 10 feet long with a tapered tail—was not like meeting Sue, who was 13 feet tall at the Field Museum in Chicago. Heslop likened it to the experience of seeing a kangaroo instead of an elephant at a zoo.
The unreal bones were cast or 3D printed, making the creature a work of art rather than a mere fossil. Most of the skulls were reconstructed, and Christie’s said dinosaurs of this type and size were common. Even Sue and Stan’s skeletons aren’t 100% complete.
Fossils of the species were discovered in 1964 by paleontologist John H. Ostrom, who named it Deinonychus, meaning terrible claws, after the dinosaur used to cut its prey named after the Sharp Bend tool. Ostrom’s discovery laid the groundwork for how scientists understand today’s dinosaurs — some more like birds than reptiles: fast-moving, presumably warm-blooded and feathered.
“Before this, we thought of them as clumsy lizards, and now we know they are very active predatory birds of prey,” said Peter Larsen, a senior commercial paleontologist who has mentored Hudson and Help identify Hector’s bones when he finds them in Montana.
Larson, who is at the center of the debate over fossil ownership, led the excavation team behind Su in 1990, which he claims failed to obtain a federal excavation permit before the FBI confiscated Su and other specimens. Years of court battles ensued that eventually cleared Su for auction, but Larson was indicted and sentenced to two years in prison on charges of currency violations involving overseas fossil sales. (He seeks forgiveness.)
The Field Museum bought Sue for $8.36 million ($15 million in today’s dollars), and Larson said he saw value in the high price tag: More people would be interested in excavating new specimens. But this way of thinking has been criticized by some paleontologists, who fear it will lead to a surge in illegal excavations and push up prices, making it impossible for public agencies to make competitive bids.
When the dinosaur went up for auction on May 12, Hyslop said he hoped it would go to someone willing to share it with the public, noting, “That little boy inside me wants to see it again and again.”