More than 65 million years ago, a T. rex. now known as STAN, roamed a part of the world we now call the Badlands, which spans the US states of North and South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana. During his life, STAN saw a lot, now, his skeletal remains, some of the most complete T. rex. fossils found to date, are seeing even more as they head to the auction block at Christie’s New York location tomorrow.
Measuring in at 13-feet-tall and 40-feet-long, from nose to tail, STAN is a massive and impressive specimen who would’ve weighed around eight tonnes, or about the size of two African elephants. STAN was named for Stan Sacrison, the amateur paleontologist who discovered the first of STAN’s 188 bones in 1987, and will head to auction tomorrow as part of Christie’s 20th Century Evening Sale with a pre-sale estimate of $6 million and $8 million (£4.6 million and £6.1 million). The last time such a complete T. rex. skeleton came to action was in 1997 when the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago purchased a now beloved T. rex. called Sue for $8.36 million (£6.45 million).
Since the discovery of STAN’s fossilised bones in 1987, much has been garnered from his bones giving insight into the life of STAN himself and shedding light on the dinosaurs we known as apex predators. Thanks to the impressions within the skull, researchers were able to confirm that the specimen was a carnivore and would have been well equipped for long-distance hunting and hunting at night. During excavations, the partially digested remains of an Edmontosaurus, a larger dino with a duck-like bill, and Triceratops were found, showing that STAN was able to kill and consume even large and well-protected dinosaurs.
After more than 30,000 hours spent excavating and getting STAN ready, his bones also told of a warrior’s life. Portions of his fossilised bones were indicative a fracture to the neck that STAN sustained and survived. Other wounds, including a puncture in his skull and one of his ribs, fit the bill for an attack from a fellow T. rex., which would have been STAN’s most formidable opponents.
After STAN died, his bones were slowly fossilised and would remain, more or less undisturbed, for centuries to come. Now, back from the grave, STAN once again looms large, but this time he’s traded out the humid semi-tropical environment of the late Cretaceous period for the City That Never Sleeps. STAN went on display at the Christie’s flag ship location where he could be viewed, day and night, from the auction house’s windows in the lead up to tomorrow’s sale.
STAN will be in good company during the Christie’s auction with works by Picasso, Jeff Koons, Andy Warhol, and other major 20th century artists filling out the auction catalogue.
