{"text":[[{"start":8.1,"text":"Sotheby’s is set to auction a rare dinosaur skeleton three months after it sold a Tyrannosaurus rex for a record-breaking $50.1mn, as wealthy collectors’ appetite for the expensive fossils shows little sign of waning. "}],[{"start":22.299999999999997,"text":"The Nanotyrannus — nicknamed “Jodi” and one of just three specimens known to science, according to the auction house — will be auctioned in New York at the end of October. Sotheby’s estimates it will fetch between $6mn and $9mn, although previous such estimates have proved conservative."}],[{"start":41,"text":"The planned sale of the skeleton, which was discovered in Montana in 2019 by rancher Jodi Pierson, signals the continued strength of a market that exploded into prominence when hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin bought a Stegosaurus for $44.6mn in 2024. "}],[{"start":59.3,"text":"“I would expect we will see deep and global bidding,” Cassandra Hatton, Sotheby’s vice-chair and global head of science and natural history, told the FT."}],[{"start":69.35,"text":"“Interest is always particularly high when we offer specimens that are both scientifically significant and visually impressive.” "}],[{"start":77.19999999999999,"text":"There has been growing elite interest in acquiring dinosaur skeletons over the past two decades. Earlier this year, Tyrannosaurus “Gus” fetched a record-breaking price of $50.1mn when it was auctioned at Sotheby’s in a bidding battle that lasted 10 minutes. In 2007, celebrities Leonardo DiCaprio and Nicolas Cage went up against each other in a bidding war to buy a dinosaur skull. "}],[{"start":103.24999999999999,"text":"Griffin’s “Apex” Stegosaurus is on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, while the location of “Gus” is not publicly known. "}],[{"start":113.29999999999998,"text":"The Nanotyrannus has long been a source of debate among palaeontologists, according to Hatton, with some arguing that it was simply an adolescent T. Rex and others maintaining that it was a different and new genus of dinosaur. "}],[{"start":127.54999999999998,"text":"That more than 80-year-old argument was resolved last year in a paper published by Lindsay Zanno and James Napoli, which showed that the Nanotyrannus was a distinct genus that coexisted with the T. rex. "}],[{"start":139.7,"text":"“Jodi” is the first skeleton to come to market since the genus was verified, according to Sotheby’s. "}],[{"start":null,"text":"The dinosaur, which measures approximately 6.5 feet tall and 19.6 feet long, was excavated by well-known commercial palaeontologist Clayton Phipps. "}],[{"start":145.6,"text":"“We have so much coming down the line,” Hatton said of future dinosaur auctions. “It really is a category like no other.” "}],[{"start":162,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1791218361_6710.mp3"}