Paris: The rare skeleton of a triceratops is the star attraction at a Christie's auction in Paris today, only the second dinosaur fossil of this size ever to go under the hammer. Bids are to start off at USD 792,000 for the massive three-horned dinosaur specimen that roamed the Earth some 65 million years ago, and Christie's expects it to fetch a high price.

Unearthed from the badlands of North Dakota in 2004, the mud-brown skeleton belonged to a private "western European" collector who had it on display alongside two other dinosaur fossils in his private museum in a chateau, said Christie's expert Eric Mickeler.

The triceratops skeleton is 70 per cent complete, a rarity in paleontology, with only the tip of its horns made from resin and a few reconstituted bones in its hind leg and a rib, said Mickeler.

The auction today marks the first time that such a dinosaur specimen goes up for public sale since a T-Rex called "Sue" was sold in New York in October 1997.

Sue -- named after South Dakota resident Sue Hendrickson who stumbled on the fossil during a walk -- is the most complete tyrannosaurus rex ever recovered and was bought by the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History for 8.3 million dollars.

The triceratops is the star lot of the auction that will feature some 150 other pieces: fossils, meteors and minerals, some dating back 450 million years. 
Source : PTI