Skeletons For Sale

Going once, going twice, SOLD! If you are a serious fossil collector, and can afford the hefty cost, those might be the words you'd hear at a Natural History Auction hosted by I.M. Chait Gallery/Auctioneers on Saturday, March 21 in New York City.

Shown above is Lot 250: a mounted complete skeleton of a Dryosaurus dinosaur from the Jurassic Era. There are only two in the world, the other is on display at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pennsylvania. Apparently the one for sale is by far the more impressive specimen. It measures 127.5 inches from nose to tail, stands 36 inches high, and was expected to sell for $440,000 - $500,000.

But if dinosaurs are not really your style, perhaps you coule find more interest in Lot 199: a complete skeleton of a juvenile Wooly Mammoth. This 7-foot high, 15-foot long fossil is approximately 20,000 years old. The perfectly preserved specimen was expected to sell for $80,000 - $100,000, appealing to the more thrifty of shoppers.