150 million year-old dinosaur up for auction in Paris

French auction house Drouot displayed the fossil of a 150 million-year-old dinosaur before it will be put up for sale in Paris in October, another example of a collector’s growing appetite for the fossilised giants.

Zephyr, a 3 metre long, 1.3 metre high Camptosaurus unearthed in Colorado in 2019, could be sold for up to 500,000 euros ($494,625).

Speaking on Wednesday, Auctioneer Alexandre Giquello predicted this comparably low estimate, along with the specimen’s compact size, could fuel interest from a wider client base.

Last year, an American collector bought Big John, the largest known fossilised Triceratops, for a record-breaking 6.6 million euros ($6.53 million).

“In the last 20 years, we have seen more and more collectors approaching this specialty but in the last five years, we have seen an explosion of interest and this is because of the auctions, the public sales,” paleontologist Iacopo Briano told the Associated Press.

Zephyr’s skeleton is 70% complete and its spine is lined with fossilised tendons.

“We have an amazing fossilisation of his back tendons that is a part of the skeleton that is not usually preserved,” Briano said.