'Vulcain', an Apatosaurus dinosaur skeleton, formerly known as a Brontosaurus, on display at Château de Dampierre-en-Yvelines, outside Paris.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: The stage is set for "Vulcain", one of the biggest dinosaurs that roamed the earth 150 million years ago, to go under the hammer on November 16 in Paris.
French auction houses Collin du Bocage and Barbarossa have announced that the “most complete” and largest dino skeleton to be auctioned has already crossed its original estimates to $11- $22 million (approx Rs 92-185 crore) since pre-registration bidding opened in July.
The majestic Apatosaurus skeleton was discovered in Wyoming in the US in 2018 and measures 20.50 metres with approximately 80 per cent of bones belonging to the same dinosaur - making it the most complete dinosaur skeleton to be discovered.
“Vulcain is the largest and most complete dinosaur that stands above them all. It is the ancient find of a lifetime,” Olivier Collin du Bocage, founder and auctioneer of Collin du Bocage, said in a statement.
With the market for dinosaur skeleton continuing to surge since the sale of T-Rex “Sue” in 1997 for $8.4 million and the record sale of “Apex” Stegosaurus for $44.6 million dollars earlier this year, the sale of “Vulcain” is expected to be one for the record books.
The purchaser will be given the GPS point and excavation plan together with an osteological map and the rights to officially re-name the dinosaur as well as copyrights of the specimen.
“Vulcain”, one of the most complete sauropod fossils from the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation, has been studied by renowned paleontology experts, including Christian Foth from the University of Rostock in Germany who recently uncovered the specimen to be a new dinosaur species.
According to their analysis, the “Vulcain” dinosaur shares features common to both Apatosaurus and Brontosaurus, but matches more closely with Apatosaurus ajax while sharing characteristics with Apatosaurus louisae, another recognised species of Apatosaurus.
Thus, this unique mix of characteristics suggests it could represent an intermediate species between Apatosaurus ajax and Apatosaurus louisae.
Based on materials and deposits found in the fossiliferous soil layer, it was classified as an herbivore.
In comparison with the Apatosaurus specimen on display at the Natural History Museum in New York, which is made up of the skeletons of three different individual dinosaurs, Vulcain is 80 percent a complete dinosaur and also possesses a part of its skull and gastralia (floating bones) which are rare elements absent from most of the specimens found.
"Already in the field we could see that it was impressive, a sort of giant Mikado. We were very impressed, because not only is the apatosaurus much rarer than the diplodocus, but we could also see that it was an exceptional specimen," said Pascal Godefroit, palaeontology at Belgium's Royal Institute of Natural Sciences.
Godefroit had witnessed the discovery of Vulcain as his team was working on the same site, excavating a Diplodocus.
These findings, along with the palaeontology community and scientists at fossil fairs and the art and auction world all abuzz about the rise of dinosaur specimens, has raised greater interest and speculation surrounding where “Vulcain” will go home to after going under the gavel on November 16.
The giant American dinosaur has been on display at the Château de Dampierre-en-Yvelines outside Paris and has received a record number of more than 40,000 visitors to date since the exhibition opened in July.
The dinosaur will be on public exhibition from November 3 to 16 at the 17th century chateau.