The New York Times is reporting that “Jodi” the Nanotyrannus lancensis sold for 47.3 million at Sotheby’s on October 27th, 2026. Both the buyer and seller are unknown at this time… Ok, who bought and when are you inviting us over to see it?!?

A skeleton belonging to a smaller relative of Tyrannosaurus rex was sold at auction on Tuesday for nearly $47.3 million, far beyond projections. It was the latest lucrative sale of a fossil coming out of the field of commercial paleontology.

The final price, $47,255,000, was higher than other recent auctions of larger dinosaur fossils, though below a $50.1 million sum for a T. rex specimen at Sotheby’s in June.

The fossil is nicknamed Jodi, after Jodi Pierson, the rancher who found the remains in 2019 on her land in Montana. It comes from the Hell Creek Formation, a layer of rocks known as a graveyard for fossil remains. Initially, Sotheby’s estimated the animal, from a group of dinosaur species called Nanotyrannus, would sell for $6 million to $9 million. The buyer and seller were not identified.