Triceratops skeleton heads to auction

SINGAPORE

A triceratops skeleton that spent decades in a Wyoming museum is going under the hammer as the market for dinosaur fossils soars.

Named Trey, the 5.3-meter-long herbivore will be auctioned online March 17–31 on Joopiter, the platform founded by musician Pharrell Williams. Preauction estimates put the sale between 4.5 million and 5.5 million dollars.

Discovered near Lusk, Wyoming, in 1993 by paleontologists Lee Campbell and the late Allen Graffham, Trey greeted visitors at the 1995 opening of the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis and stayed on loan until 2023. The skeleton is now in Singapore for private viewings.

“Trey has a cultural aspect many auction fossils don’t,” said paleontologist Andre LuJan. “It has inspired children to pursue paleontology.”

The sale reflects a boom in dinosaur investments. In 2024, the stegosaurus Apex sold for 44.6 million dollars, surpassing the 31.8 million paid for the Tyrannosaurus rex Stan in 2020. A young dinosaur skeleton recently sold for over 30 million dollars, far exceeding its 4–6 million preauction estimate at Sotheby’s.

Collectors are increasingly drawn to items with cultural resonance, said Joopiter sales head Caitlin Donovan. LuJan added, “Dinosaurs have always captivated our imagination … people are starting to see their value as assets.”

However, some paleontologists warn that the boom could limit scientific access. Kristi Curry Rogers of Macalester College said museums are “getting priced out” and fossils in private hands can mean “data lost to science.”