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Sotheby’s will auction the mounted Nanotyrannus skeleton known as Jodi in New York on October 27 with a presale estimate of $6 million to $9 million. The auction house described the 67-million-year-old specimen as one of only three known examples of the genus and the first to reach the market since its status as a separate species received formal confirmation. Jodi stands 6.5 feet tall when mounted and stretches 19.6 feet long while encompassing roughly 190 fossil bone elements including a virtually complete skull with 35 teeth according to Sotheby’s. The auction house added that the fossil features a full pelvis all four claws and additional intact elements that make it exhibition ready.
The skeleton was discovered in 2019 on private land in Montana’s Hell Creek Formation by rancher Jodi Pierson whose name it bears. Commercial paleontologist Clayton Phipps oversaw the excavation process that later featured in a Discovery Channel documentary series. Sotheby’s noted that the same specimen had previously been exhibited in 2023 as a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex under the name Chomper with an asking price of $20 million before the reclassification altered both its identity and valuation.
A landmark 2025 study by paleontologists Lindsay Zanno and James Napoli analysed more than 200 tyrannosaur fossils including growth rings in bones from the Dueling Dinosaurs specimen. The research published in Nature determined that Nanotyrannus individuals were skeletally mature adults measuring about half the length and one-tenth the body mass of a full-grown T. rex. “Simply put, the Dueling Dinosaur Nanotyrannus is fully grown at half the length and one tenth the body mass of a mature T. rex,” Zanno said in the study that also highlighted differences in arm length tooth count tail vertebrae and skull nerve patterns.[[1]](https://livescience.com/animals/dinosaurs/i-was-wrong-dinosaur-scientists-agree-that-small-tyrannosaur-nanotyrannus-was-real-pivotal-new-study-finds)[[2]](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nanotyrannus-isnt-a-juvenile-t-rex-its-a-separate-dinosaur/)
The findings overturned decades of debate during which many scientists had viewed smaller tyrannosaur fossils as adolescent T. rex examples. Reports in Scientific American and Live Science detailed how the evidence from spinal fusion developmental anatomy and CT scans of cranial structures supported the validity of Nanotyrannus lancensis as a nimbler predator that lived alongside T. rex in the Late Cretaceous. Zanno who had once supported the juvenile hypothesis stated that the data left no scenario in which these animals could transform into T. rex.
Sotheby’s sold a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton named Gus for a record $50.1 million in July according to the Financial Times which noted the transaction followed the $44.6 million sale of a Stegosaurus called Apex in 2024 to a billionaire collector. A review of auction records from 2010 to 2022 showed that a handful of high-profile dinosaur specimens have accounted for a disproportionate share of fossil sales revenue during that period. The market for such fossils has expanded significantly with private collectors competing against museums for ownership of these rare pieces.[[3]](https://www.ft.com/content/5c3c2a70-cfa1-4146-bff8-ededc6294707?syn-25a6b1a6=1)[[4]](https://www.fossilrealm.com/blogs/news/from-stan-to-cera-how-dinosaurs-entered-the-art-market)
Some paleontologists have raised concerns that escalating prices at auction increasingly divert scientifically important specimens into private hands where research access may be limited. A WIRED report on recent T. rex sales highlighted how the trend could impede broader study of dinosaur evolution and ecosystems. Nevertheless the Jodi auction proceeds as scheduled and will test current demand for verified Nanotyrannus material in a sector that has seen several eight-figure results in recent years.
