
One of the world's most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons is up for sale.
One of the world's most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons is up for sale.
STAN the T. rex, named after the paleontologist who first discovered his bones, walked the Earth some 67 million years ago. Now his skeleton will be displayed at Christie's in New York prior to auction on October 6, with an estimate of $6 million-$8 million.
For the past two decades, STAN has been studied at the Black Hills Institute in South Dakota, and paleontologists have produced dozens of papers and studies as a result.
Standing 13 feet high and 40 feet long, including its tail, STAN is made up of 188 bones, making it one of the largest and most complete T. rex skeletons in the world.
The first of its bones was found in the Hell Creek Formation that spans parts of Montana, North and South Dakota and Wyoming in 1987 by Stan Sacrison, an amateur paleontologist.

One of the world's most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons is up for sale.
Initially misidentified as Triceratops bones, they lay undisturbed until 1992, when visiting paleontologists realized their true origin.
It then took more than 30,000 hours of manual labor to excavate and restore the skeleton. Researchers have since found that STAN survived a broken neck during his lifetime, after which two of his vertebrae fused together.
There are also signs of puncture wounds in his skull and one rib that may have been caused by another T. rex.
STAN would have weighed 7-8 tons — about twice as much as today's African elephant — and his longest teeth measure more than 11 inches, with serrated edges.
"We are honoured to be bringing STAN to auction and to have been entrusted with the stewardship of such an iconic and important T. rex," said James Hyslop, head of scientific instruments, globes and natural history at Christie's, adding that STAN will be visible 24 hours a day through the windows at Christie's Rockefeller Center.
"This special viewing opportunity will offer enthusiasts and pedestrians alike the chance to see and learn about one of the world's most iconic dinosaurs in a socially distanced setting."
In August, a new species of dinosaur related to the Tyrannosaurus rex was discovered in England.
The dinosaur would have measured about 13 feet long, and is a type of theropod — a group of carnivores that typically walked on two legs instead of four, which includes the T. rex.
It lived in the Cretaceous period, about 115 million years ago, according to paleontologists at the University of Southampton, who spent months studying four bones that were found last year on the Isle of Wight, off the south coast of England.
Strange celebrity items sold at auction
Strange celebrity items sold at auction
A lock of David Bowie's hair is the latest weird celebrity item to be available for purchase, but it's definitely not the first -- nor the strangest.
Heritage Auctions is expecting a lock of late rock star David Bowie's hair to fetch more than $4,000 at this Saturday's auction in Beverly Hills, California. The lock comes from a former Madame Tussauds Wax Museum employee who snipped some of Bowie's hair in the 1980s to create a wig for a wax figure of the singer and then kept the lock as a souvenir.
Finding and selling Britney Spears' chewing gum was apparently a popular way to make some cash in the early 2000s. According to CBS News, more than two dozen eBay auctions offering gum chewed by the pop star existed in September 2004. While there was no way to actually prove the gum was authentic, some auctions still pulled in more than $14,000.
Just a year after the surge in gum auctions, a pregnancy test allegedly used by Britney Spears found its way to the online marketplace.
According to CNN, the test was found in a garbage can in a Los Angeles hotel room that Spears had stayed in with then husband Kevin Federline.
The Internet casino, which is known for bizarre celebrity merchandise purchases, bought the pregnancy test for $5,001 from a Canadian radio station, which had previously purchased the item.
In December 2008, Scarlett Johansson blew her nose on stage at "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." She did so after making a joke about how she had caught a cold from Samuel L. Jackson, and therefore her cold was pretty valuable.
She then announced she would put the tissue up for auction, which she did. The item raised $5,300 for the hunger relief charity USA Harvest.
In March 2000, Justin Timberlake had breakfast at a radio station. Afterward, the DJ put Timberlake's unfinished French toast up for sale on eBay. Kathy Summers, a 19-year-old fan from Madison, Wisconsin, purchased the leftovers for $1,025.
What's up with boy band members and toast?
Niall Horan of One Direction was asked to try some Vegemite on toast during a stop in Australia. To say the least, he didn't like it.
Horan spit out the bite of toast in a napkin and didn't finish the rest, which was then sold at auction for almost $100,000. The money was donated to the Australian charity Youngcare.
Sometime between 1964 and 1968, John Lennon gave his tooth to his housekeeper, Dot Jarlett, to throw away. He quickly changed his mind, according to Rolling Stone, and suggested she give it to her daughter, who was a big Beatles fan.
Jarlett put the tooth up for sale in 2011. It sold for $31,200.
After cutting off his famous side-swept hair in 2011, Justin Bieber decided to give a lock of it to Ellen DeGeneres. The talk show host listed the "gift" on eBay, where it sold for $40,668.
The money went to benefit The Gentle Barn Foundation, an animal rescue organization.
Pharrell Williams' over-sized hat went viral after he wore it to the Grammys in 2014. The hat had its own Twitter account and appeared in countless memes.
Recognizing the attention it got, Williams decided to auction the hat off for charity. Fast food chain Arby's was the highest bidder, paying more than $40,000 for the infamous piece.
.@Pharrell You're welcome. We're HAPPY to support a great cause & get our hat back. Good luck at the #Oscars tonight! pic.twitter.com/2oA7qDPX9z
— Arby's (@Arbys) March 3, 2014
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