A curator gingerly fastened the bones of pointed claws with thin metal wires, completing perhaps the largest construction kit in the world – reassembling the 67 million-year-old Tyrannosaurus-Rex called Trinity.
The huge skeleton will be auctioned off in Switzerland next month after being shipped to Zurich from the United States in nine giant crates.
But paleontologist Thomas Holtz – who opposes the sale of the specimen – told AFP it was “misleading” and “inappropriate…
The Swiss sale comes just four months after Christie’s canceled another T-Rex skeleton days before its Hong Kong launch after doubts were raised about the part.
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Trinity, the Swiss T-Rex, was made from the bones of three dinosaurs excavated between 2008 and 2013 from the Hell Creek and Lance Creek formations in Montana and Wyoming.
Both sites are known for the discovery of two other important T-Rex skeletons that have been auctioned. “Sue” went under the hammer in 1997 for $8.4 million, and “Stan”, which fetched a world record hammer price of $31.8 million at Christie’s, in 2020.
– No ‘trophies’ –
The Trinity, which is being sold by an anonymous “private individual,” is expected to fetch six to eight million Swiss francs ($6.5-8.7 million) when it goes under the hammer in Zurich on April 18, auction house Koller estimates.
But Christian Link of Koller said he believed the guide price was a “reasonably low” estimate.
The 3.9-meter (12.8-foot) tall skeleton was displayed on a red carpet under a crystal chandelier at a concert hall in the city on Wednesday.
More than half of the bone material in the skeleton came from the three Tyrannosaurus specimens – above the 50 percent level required for experts to consider the bones to be of high quality.
Link insisted that Koller was transparent about the bone’s provenance.
“That’s why it’s called Trinity. We don’t hide that this specimen comes from three different excavation sites,” he said.
Vertebrate palaeontologist Holtz, of the University of Maryland, remains skeptical, insisting that Trinity is “not really a ‘specimen’ as much as an art installation.”
He also took issue with the auction of significant dinosaur bones and other fossils, which have fetched tens of millions of dollars in recent years.
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Experts warn that the trade could harm science by putting the specimens in private hands and out of the reach of researchers.
“Fossils are not, or at least are, treated as trophies or glorified action figures,” Holtz said.
But Link insists that 95 percent of known T-Rexes are now in museums, and says that private collectors who can buy Trinity will make it available to scientists and lend it to museums.
– ‘Too old’ –
Reassembling Trinity was not easy, Yolanda Schicker-Siber, curator of the Aathal Dinosaur Museum of Switzerland, told AFP when she found another thumb bone.
“The bones are very old. So fragile, cracked,” he said.
“They’re stable, but you never know if there’s a crack you haven’t seen until now… You’ve got to get the glue ready.”
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Aart Walen, a Dutch expert with 30 years of experience assembling dinosaur skeletons, agrees.
“We haven’t damaged anything,” he said proudly, as he and his colleagues worked on two large ischium bones, located near the dinosaur’s pelvic area.
With a parakeet named Ethel on his shoulder, Walen filled in the cracks using dental tools and modeling compounds.
It is important to fix it remains visible, he said, showing the dark lines where the fissures have been.
“You have to see where it has been fixed. There are some stories about fakes out there. We don’t want it,” he said, referring to the canceled Christie’s auction.
Knocking on different parts of the bone, he also demonstrated the different sounds made by the original bone and the plastic additions used to fill the bone.
– Room for T-Rex –
Link said he would like to see a Swiss museum buy the bones, adding “it would be nice to have them here permanently.”
Schicker-Siber said that the dinosaur museum she was running with her father outside of Zurich was unfortunately unable to get Trinity.
“But if someone buys it and doesn’t know where to put it, we have a museum (with a room) for the T-Rex,” he said.
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