Paleontologists angered as world's only 68-million-year-old baby T-Rex fossil goes on sale

A 68-million-year-old world’s only fossil of baby T-Rex has been put up for sale, which has infuriated paleontologists who hold a great deal of importance for fossils, especially of dinosaurs. 

A fossil hunter has recently put the remains of what he claims to be the ‘world’s only juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex’ up for sale on eBay for $2.95 million.

The skeleton is estimated to be about 68 million years old and was initially discovered back in 2013 by a fossil hunter, Alan Detrich. However, Detrich lent the fossil to University of Kansas Natural History Museum in 2017, where it was on display when Detrich made the decision to put it up for auction, detailed The Guardian.

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This decision led to huge criticism from the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) on both Detrich, who will be taking an important specimen outside the reach of scientific study, and the university, for helping in this.

In an open letter, SVP’s members said that it was regrettable that the fossil was exhibited before it could be studied. “That action, which brought the fossil to the attention of hundreds or thousands of visitors, potentially enhanced its commercial value,” they wrote. “Museums seldom have the budget for purchase of increasingly expensive privately collected specimens.”

“Only casts and other replicas of vertebrate fossils should be traded, not the fossils themselves,” the letter further read. “Scientifically important fossils like the juvenile tyrannosaur are clues to our collective natural heritage and deserve to be held in public trust.”

Moreover, the University of Kansas later claimed they were unaware of Detrich’s plans to put the skeleton up for auction. The museum’s director, Leonard Krishtalka, said the exhibit has now been removed and returned to Detrich, and they have asked for any association with the museum to be removed from the listing, reported Daily Mail.

Researchers claim that analysis of this skeleton could lead to a breakthrough in debate over whether such small skeletons are simply immature T-Rexes, or if they represent a totally distinct species of dinosaur. Experts claimed that they won’t be able to do so now because it won’t be available.