The original or a fake? Christie's removes suspicious tyrannosaurus rex skeleton from auction

Auction house Christie's has canceled at the last minute an upcoming auction that was supposed to sell a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton under the code name Shen. It was assumed that the auction will bring up to 25 million dollars. It was necessary to go for the cancellation due to the fact that experts noticed Shen's striking resemblance to another known instance of a tyrannosaurus rex, Stan, and suggested that most of the bones are copies. It is reported by LiveScience.

The skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, named Shen, was discovered in the Hell Creek Formation in Montana. Scientists suggest that he lived during the Cretaceous period, from 66 to 68 million years ago. The dimensions of the skeleton are 12.2 meters long, 4.6 meters high and 2.1 meters wide, weight - 1400 kg. British auction house Christie's suggested that Shen would be the first Tyrannosaurus rex sold in Asia. The auction was scheduled for November 30 in Hong Kong.

However, paleontologists who have studied the skeleton have noticed that a significant portion of Shen's bones are remarkably similar to another famous Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton known as Stan. Stan was sold at Christie's in New York for $32 million, becoming the most expensive Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton in history.

The similarity was first noticed by scientists from the Black Hills Geological Research Institute (BHIGR), whose employees are excavating in South Dakota. It was they who unearthed Stan in 1992 and assembled individual bones into a skeleton. The hole in the lower left jaw, which was considered a unique sign of Stan, they also saw Shen.

Although Stan was sold, BHIGR retained the rights to reproduce casts of his skeleton. These polyurethane casts cost up to $120,000 each. In Shen's case, the institute's employees suspected that their copyrights were being violated in order to sell the skeleton of another dinosaur and contacted the auction house.

During the ongoing proceedings, another important question arose - how many bones from the skeleton for sale and very expensive Shen are original. The fact is that almost all dinosaur skeletons that are sold at auctions or exhibited in museums include copies of the bones - to replace the missing originals. For example, Stan out of 380 bones is half original. As for Shen, only 79 bones were original, and 300, including all teeth and the lower jaw, were copies from other dinosaurs.

Eventually Christie's was forced to admit that many of the copies of Shen's bones were borrowed from Stan and canceled the sale just 10 days before the auction. Shen was loaned to one of the museums, where he is also being studied until the situation is fully clarified.