A smaller, sleeker cousin of Tyrannosaurus rex is drawing crowds in Manhattan before it goes under the hammer, and stirring up a fight between an auction house and the scientists who study dinosaurs.
The skeleton, a Nanotyrannus nicknamed "Jodi," went on public display on Tuesday, Oct. 13, in the lobby of Sotheby's headquarters on the Upper East Side, the Associated Press reported. It will be auctioned on Oct. 27 with an estimate of $6 million to $9 million.
- ~20 ftLength
- 70%CompleteIncluding a nearly complete skull
- ~35Teeth in the jaw
- $6–9MAuction estimate
Source: Sotheby's, via the Associated Press
A Ranch Find
Montana rancher Jodi Pierson found the fossil on her land in 2019, and its excavation was featured in the 2020 Discovery Channel series "Dino Hunters." Jodi is one of only three known Nanotyrannus skeletons. Another, the nearly complete "Dueling Dinosaurs" specimen, was found about 8 miles away in 2006 and isn't for sale. The third is at the Burpee Museum of Natural History in Rockford, Illinois.
Sotheby's calls Jodi the finest and most complete Nanotyrannus currently available.
Not a Baby T. Rex After All
For decades, scientists argued over whether Nanotyrannus was its own animal or just a juvenile T. rex. Research published in October 2025 concluded it was a distinct genus that lived alongside T. rex. Growth rings in its bones showed the known specimens were adults.
The differences are striking. An adult Nanotyrannus was about 18 feet long, roughly half the length of a grown T. rex, with longer arms, bigger hand claws and slender, blade-like teeth instead of T. rex's thick, banana-shaped ones. It probably chased faster prey, and T. rex may have eaten it.
Scientists Push Back
The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology wants important fossils like Jodi kept in museums and research institutions, not private collections. Its president, Stuart Sumida, a biology professor at California State University San Bernardino, told the AP that no peer-reviewed study can be published on specimens that aren't held in the public trust, and that a privately owned fossil may never be seen again.
Sotheby's vice chair Cassandra Hatton counters that private diggers who invest their own money are essential, because universities and museums don't dig enough on their own. Sumida called her argument a "blatant lie."
The stakes are high. This summer, Sotheby's sold a T. rex skeleton for a record $50.1 million.