Gus the $20 Million T Rex Going Up For Auction

Expect to pay big to get your hands on Gus.

Considered one of the (if not the) best preserved tyrannosaurus skeletons ever discovered, Gus is heading to Sotheby’s auction in the coming days.

Rancher Gary “Gus” Licking spent years picking up bone and tooth fragments across his 6,500-acre South Dakota property, convinced something larger lay beneath.

He was right. After three field seasons of excavation, the result is a remarkably complete Tyrannosaurus rex, which is now named after him and headed to auction with a record-setting estimate.

At 38 feet long and 12.5 feet tall, the specimen is both massive and rare. Its 54-inch skull is about 82 percent complete, and a femur over 50 inches surpasses that of “Stan,” the previous benchmark.

In total, 183 fossil elements were recovered, including a rare furcula and 30 of 32 gastralia, or fragile belly ribs seldom found intact. Only one other T. rex preserves both feet in similarly pristine condition.

Bite marks on several bones hint at a violent past, either a fight with another tyrannosaur or scavenging after death. What began as scattered fragments has emerged as one of the most complete T. rex skeletons ever found.

You can call Gus your own if you partake in the upcoming Sotheby’s auction, and are willing to spend the estimated $20-30 million dollars that the beast is estimated to cost.

Photography by Matthew Sherman.