BONES OF CONTENTION

Fossilised dinosaurs commanding millions of pounds at auction are being increasingly gobbled up by rich private collectors. But with museums losing out, scientists fear the secrets of scientifically important fossils are in danger of becoming lost forever

- By Dominic Bliss

HEY call him Spike - and, despite dying 68 million years ago, he is more popular now than he has ever been.

Spike is actually a fossilised dinosaur skeleton, and was recently auctioned at Christie’s in London for almost £3.5million.

Dating from the late Cretaceous period, and discovered in the US state of South Dakota, Spike is a rare species of dinosaur called a caenagnathid, thought to have been covered in feathers.

He stands at around 6ft 6in high, a stunning specimen with long, powerful hind legs that would have propelled him along at almost 40mph - much faster than a tyrannosaurus rex. Armed with a sharp beak and fearsome claws, he would have been more than capable of defending himself. There’s a theory that he might have vaguely resembled a modern-day ostrich or cassowary, only far more menacing and easily capable of gobbling up small animals.

Despite his colossal value to science, Spike was sold last month to an anonymous collector.

Make no bones about it, the global trade in dinosaur fossils is booming right now. In July 2024, a stegosaurus skeleton called Apex sold for a record £33.3m. Discovered in an area of Colorado called the Morrison Formation, this specimen is 150 million years old, comprising 254 fossilised bones and stands at 11ft tall, with a length of 27ft. The buyer was an American hedge fund manager called Kenneth C Griffin who has now lent Apex for a few years to the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

It is often tyrannosaurus rexes that command the highest prices. In 2020, a fossilised skeleton of one of these monsters, called Stan, sold in New York for £23.7m.

Other species prove popular, too, especially when their skulls or skeletons are near complete. Last year a rare juvenile ceratosaurus fetched £22.75m.