Where would you put a huge, 65-million-year-old triceratops head? Hopefully a museum; but If you have a couple of million US dollars to burn, you probably won't have to worry about finding the space.
Measuring 2.8 meters long, 1.6 meters high and 1.4 meters wide, the skull comes with a price tag hovering somewhere above USD1.8 million, and will undoubtedly attract interest from the ultra-rich who have grown weary of their luxury homes, private islands and super cars.
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Dubbed the Dragon King, the prehistoric fossil was discovered in 1992 by Ray Novakovich, a rancher who was inspecting his property in the US state of Montana.
Despite the fact he immediately informed the authorities, however, it somehow remained underground until 2003, when a team of privately financed fossil hunters decided to buy it. It is not clear who the sellers are now, but Brian Lerner, director of Evolved, the company handling the sale, said the piece is legally owned and documented and all is completely transparent.
As one of the largest and most complete dinosaur skull ever discovered, the Dragon King is also hugely important for the scientific community. This is why a group of local paleontologists, including Dr. Michael Pittman of the University of Hong Kong, are concerned about the possibility the fossil, locked away in a private collection, will not get to be studied by scientists or viewed by the public.
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[Image via SCMP]
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