Sotheby’s New York held a series of auctions this week under the title Geek Week, focused on objects from the worlds of science and technology, with lots ranging from outer space to the age of dinosaurs.
The highlight came on 16 July with the sale Natural History, Including The Juvenile Ceratosaurus, and the Largest Piece of Mars on Earth. As the title suggests, the main attractions were a dinosaur skeleton and the largest known Martian meteorite ever to reach Earth.
Dinosaur skeletons have drawn growing attention at auction in recent years. This time, it was a Ceratosaurus, a species that lived around 154 to 149 million years ago. Its fossil was discovered in 1996 in what is now Wyoming. Measuring 1.80 by 3.35 metres, the specimen is considered a juvenile – adults could grow up to 7.5 metres in length.
See also: Here's Who Buys Dinosaur Skeletons at Auction and Why
Estimated at $4–6 million, bidding quickly surpassed expectations. The skeleton sold for $26 million, or $30.5 million including fees (about £22.6 million), making it the third most expensive dinosaur ever sold at auction. Only Stegosaurus Apex ($44.6 million in 2024) and T. Rex Stan ($31.8 million in 2020) have fetched higher prices.
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A massive meteorite impact is believed to have played a key role in the extinction of the dinosaurs. That makes the story of NWA 16788 — the largest Martian meteorite on Earth — all the more striking. Blasted off Mars millions of years ago by an asteroid strike, it travelled 225 million kilometres through space before landing on Earth. It was discovered in November 2023 by a meteorite hunter in a remote part of the Sahara in Niger.
Estimated at $2–4 million, bidding for NWA 16788 was slow to start, but eventually reached $4.3 million (about £3.1 million). With fees, the final price came to $5,296,000, a new auction record for a meteorite.
