Sotheby's Sells Nanotyrannus 'Jodi' for $47.3 Million

By Daniel Okafor

A 67-million-year-old Nanotyrannus skeleton named "Jodi" sold at Sotheby's New York on Tuesday for $47.3 million, including fees — more than five times its $9 million high estimate. The hammer fell at $40.5 million, making Jodi one of the most expensive dinosaur fossils ever auctioned.

The result lands just three months after Sotheby's sold "Gus," a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, for a record $50.1 million. That July sale, estimated at $20 million–$30 million, set a new high for prehistoric fossils, overtaking the $44.6 million paid for the Stegosaurus "Apex" in 2024. Jodi came remarkably close to that record despite being considerably smaller and lacking the brand recognition of a T. rex.

Who is Jodi, and who found her?

The nearly 20-foot-long skeleton came out of Montana's Hell Creek Formation in 2019. Rancher Jodi Pierson discovered it, and the fossil took her name. Sotheby's says it is one of only three known Nanotyrannus skeletons, comprising 191 fossil bone elements, among them a nearly complete skull.

Science itself only recently made peace with the creature. For decades researchers debated whether the smaller predator was merely a juvenile T. rex. A study published in Nature last year helped settle the argument, identifying Nanotyrannus as a distinct genus (a genus being the taxonomic rank above species) that lived alongside its much larger cousin.

What did the fossil sell for before?

Jodi already had a market history, and an instructive one. In 2023, when it was known as "Chomper" and still identified as a juvenile T. rex, London dealer David Aaron offered it for $20 million at Frieze Masters. It didn't sell. The current consignor had acquired it in 2021, according to Sotheby's provenance listing. Three years later, with a new name and a new scientific identity, it fetched more than twice that asking price.

The sale is further evidence that dinosaurs have become serious trophy objects for wealthy collectors, joining blue-chip paintings, rare watches and sports memorabilia at the top of the luxury market. The comparables are getting crowded:

• Christie's sold the T. rex "Stan" for $31.8 million in 2020.
• A juvenile Ceratosaurus brought $30.5 million at Sotheby's last year, against an estimate of $4 million–$6 million.
• "Apex" the Stegosaurus made $44.6 million in 2024.
• "Gus" the T. rex set the current record at $50.1 million in July.

What does the boom mean for science?

The price climb has raised concerns among paleontologists, who worry that scientifically important fossils are increasingly priced beyond museums' reach and disappearing into private collections. Auction houses counter that private investment funds the expensive work of excavating, preserving and studying specimens.

Jodi's trajectory — unsold at $20 million in 2023, hammered at $40.5 million in 2026's market — suggests the rebranding of a fossil can add eight figures. Whether museums can keep pace with collectors is now the field's open question.