Niamh Shackleton
I hope that the dinosaur enthusiasts across the globe have been saving up as there's a 68-million-year-old skeleton going up for auction very soon.
In the coming weeks Spike the Caenagnathid will become available to purchase at British auction house Christie's, which is based in London, UK.
Spike will have been was once a small, carnivorous dinosaur that lived in Late Jurassic Europe, says EBSCO. When alive, the dinosaur will have been between 0.8 to 1 meter in length and weighed between 2 and 2.8 kilograms.
And, according to Christie's, Spike was once heavily feathered. It remained uncovered for the best part of 66 million years and has since been carefully pieced back together.
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The bones were found in the Hell Creek Formation in South Dakota, USA, in 2022.
"A recent discovery from the 2022 field season, Spike, comprises approximately 100 beautifully preserved fossil bones that tell the story of a sub-adult dinosaur that is 68 million years in the making," says the auction house.
"It has recently been determined that this family of dinosaurs were heavily feathered, and a rare marking on Spike's wrist might be further evidence of this. Since the first Caenagnathid was published in 1940, only a handful of comparable specimens have been discovered – and none have ever come to auction until now."
Spike is scheduled to go up for auction on December 11, and Christie's is expected to sell it for anywhere between £3,000,000 to £5,000,000 ($3,958,890 to $6,598,150 per the current exchange rate).
Speaking about the upcoming sale, James Hyslop, Head of Department, Science & Natural History at Christie's, said: "Spike is a truly exceptional specimen, and it is a great honour to present him here at Christie's. We're looking forward to welcoming visitors to King Street to meet Spike in person.
"Through Christie's Select, collectors and enthusiasts will also have the opportunity to explore Spike in immersive VR, experiencing this epic dinosaur in their own environment – from anywhere in the world."
According to The Telegraph, Spike it closely related to the Anzu wyliei, better known as the 'chicken from hell'. These dinosaurs had 'a large, hen-like crest on its head, long legs like a cassowary, sharp claws on its forelimbs and jaws built for capturing prey'.
Speaking to the news outlet, Hyslop said dinosaurs like Spike are 'extremely rare'.
"Most of the fossils in this group are described from a single arm, or a solitary bit of beak, it’s a very bitty data field, so having 100 bones is unprecedented," he shared, adding: "They are much smaller than other dinosaurs, so less likely to be preserved, and it’s tasty so it would have been scavenged after death."