Cancel the dig and put the fossil brush down - if you're looking for your own piece of paleontological history, it could be as easy as browsing on eBay. According to the Washington Post, a young Tyrannosaurus Rex has been listed on the online auction platform by a "professional fossil hunter". At roughly five meters high, the skeleton — which may be one of a kind — belongs to a dinosaur that was roughly four years old at the time it was alive, 68 million years ago. Originally discovered by Robert Detrich, the skeleton was exhibited in 2017 by the Museum of Natural History by the University of Kansas. Though his brother, Alan Dietrich, had previously tried to sell the Tyrannosaurus to a public institution, the pair ultimately decided to put it up for grabs on eBay. Their asking price? $2.95 million. The sellers have described the item as "most likely the only baby T. Rex in the world", with a 15-foot long body and 21-inch skull. Their incentive to sell the item appears to be their desire to share their archaeological find with the world and securing financing. In the US, if you discover a fossil on private property, you become the owner. While the brothers attempted to sell the remains to museums and educational institutions, they were unable to find a public buyer. While the skeleton may seem like an exciting opportunity for anyone wealthy enough to afford it, the decision to put it up for sale has been slammed by a number of scientists, who stress that discoveries like this T. Rex are rare. There's still a considerable amount we don't know about the dinosaurs, making every specimen invaluable in helping us understand them. Due to the hefty asking price, it's likely that researchers won't get the opportunity to study the creature's remains — once a specimen is purchased by a private owner, ensuring independent and ethical findings can become trickier. "Absolutely every additional fossil is critical to get a picture of what a young T. Rex was like," said paleontologist at Carthage College in Wisconsin, Thomas Carr, speaking to the Washington Post. "The fossil record is analogous to the memory of the Earth," he continued. "Fossils are the only information we have about how life on this planet evolved." The expert even went as far as branding those fossil hunters who sell their finds as "thieves of time". Though the debate surrounding fossilized dinosaurs is certainly nothing new, it's recently returned to the fore. It's more heated than ever, now that celebrities and the ultra-rich have started treating them like personal collectibles. From Nicolas Cage to Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio, there's no shortage of high-profile names getting involved in dinosaur-dealing. Unfortunately, this pushes up the fossils' price tags, leaving public institutions like museums or researchers unable to compete with them. Only last year, before scientists had even had the chance to glimpse it — let alone to study and identify it — an almost
The 'only baby T. Rex skeleton in the world' has been listed on eBay for $2.95 million
Cancel the dig and put the fossil brush down - if you're looking for your own piece of paleontological history, it could be as easy as browsing on eBay. According to the Washington Post, a young Tyrannosaurus Rex has been listed on the online auction platform by a "professional fossil hunter". At roughly five meters high, the skeleton — which may be one of a kind — belongs to a dinosaur that was roughly four years old at the time it was alive, 68 million years ago. Originally discovered by Robert Detrich, the skeleton was exhibited in 2017 by the Museum of Natural History by the University of Kansas. Though his brother, Alan Dietrich, had previously tried to sell the Tyrannosaurus to a public institution, the pair ultimately decided to put it up for grabs on eBay. Their asking price? $2.95 million. The sellers have described the item as "most likely the only baby T. Rex in the world", with a 15-foot long body and 21-inch skull. Their incentive to sell the item appears to be their desire to share their archaeological find with the world and securing financing. In the US, if you discover a fossil on private property, you become the owner. While the brothers attempted to sell the remains to museums and educational institutions, they were unable to find a public buyer. While the skeleton may seem like an exciting opportunity for anyone wealthy enough to afford it, the decision to put it up for sale has been slammed by a number of scientists, who stress that discoveries like this T. Rex are rare. There's still a considerable amount we don't know about the dinosaurs, making every specimen invaluable in helping us understand them. Due to the hefty asking price, it's likely that researchers won't get the opportunity to study the creature's remains — once a specimen is purchased by a private owner, ensuring independent and ethical findings can become trickier. "Absolutely every additional fossil is critical to get a picture of what a young T. Rex was like," said paleontologist at Carthage College in Wisconsin, Thomas Carr, speaking to the Washington Post. "The fossil record is analogous to the memory of the Earth," he continued. "Fossils are the only information we have about how life on this planet evolved." The expert even went as far as branding those fossil hunters who sell their finds as "thieves of time". Though the debate surrounding fossilized dinosaurs is certainly nothing new, it's recently returned to the fore. It's more heated than ever, now that celebrities and the ultra-rich have started treating them like personal collectibles. From Nicolas Cage to Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio, there's no shortage of high-profile names getting involved in dinosaur-dealing. Unfortunately, this pushes up the fossils' price tags, leaving public institutions like museums or researchers unable to compete with them. Only last year, before scientists had even had the chance to glimpse it — let alone to study and identify it — an almost
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