Dinosaur skeleton 'Jodi' sells for $47.3 million at New York auction

A dinosaur skeleton named "Jodi" has been sold for $47.3 million (nearly P3 billion) at an auction in New York, United States, far exceeding its estimated selling price.

In Kuya Kim's report in "24 Oras" on Thursday, six bidders competed for the approximately 67-million-year-old specimen during Tuesday's auction.

The winning bidder secured the skeleton for $47.3 million, while the auction house had initially estimated its value at between $6 million and $9 million.

The auction house admitted it did not expect the fossil to fetch such a high price.

Named after Montana rancher Jodi Pearson, who discovered the specimen in 2019, the skeleton belongs to a dinosaur known as a Nanotyrannus, whose name means "pygmy tyrant" or "dwarf tyrant."

The dinosaur is estimated to have stood around 10 feet tall and lived in what is now Montana alongside Tyrannosaurus rex approximately 68 million to 66 million years ago.

Nanotyrannus was initially believed to be a juvenile Gorgosaurus when a specimen was discovered in 1942 because of its relatively small size. It was also previously identified by some experts as a juvenile T. rex.

However, decades of scientific debate eventually led to its classification as a distinct genus in 1988.

Jodi is considered one of the most complete Nanotyrannus skeletons ever discovered, with approximately 191 bones.

"The whole specimen has about 191 bones, which is a huge number of bones for a skeleton," said Cassandra Hatton, the Vice Chairman and Worldwide Head of Science and Natural History at Sotheby's. "The skull is virtually complete, so about 90% of the mass of the skull is there. Many of the morphological diagnostic details are found in the skull. So that's the most important thing that you want to have." —Jade Veronique Yap/MGP, GMA News