‘BIG JOHN’, BIGGEST TRICERATOPS EVER, SELLS FOR 6.6 MN EUROS

Thu 21 October 2021:

“Big John,” a 66 million-year-old triceratops skeleton nearly eight metres in length, was auctioned off to a US collector on Thursday for 6.6 million euros ($7.74 million).

The hammer price at the Drouot auction house, before commission and other costs, was 5.5 million euros.

Big John roamed the lands of modern-day South Dakota more than 66 million years ago.

Drouot had estimated the skeleton would fetch between 1.2-1.5 million euros.

The first piece of bone from the supersized skeleton – the skull alone is 2.62 meters long and two meters wide – was found in 2014.

Big John lived during the Upper Cretaceous period, the final era of dinosaurs, and died in a floodplain, buried in mud that kept him well preserved.

A horn injury near his cranium suggests he got into at least one nasty fight.

Scientists who analysed his bones before the auction found that his cranium—which is 70 percent complete—is five to 10 percent bigger than other discovered triceratop skeletons.

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