T. rex skeleton sold at Zurich auction for $5.3M

A Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton sold for $5.3 million at an auction in Switzerland, below the expected value.

The nearly 300 total bones were dug up from three separate sites in the U.S. and were crafted into a full composite skeleton in an open-mouth pose, which measured roughly 38 feet long and 12.8 feet high, NBC News reported.

The Koller auction house in Zurich had the anticipated price estimated to be somewhere between 5 and 8 million francs at the beginning of the proceedings.

It was sold Monday to a private collector from Europe for the price of 4.8 million francs, or $5.3 million.

“It could be that it was a composite — that could be why the purists didn’t go for it,” said Karl Green, the auction house’s marketing director. “It’s a fair price for the dino. I hope it’s going to be shown somewhere in public.”

Promoters named the T. rex “Trinity,” referencing the three separate archaeological sites it came from, in the Hell Creek and Lance Creek formations of Montana and Wyoming.

The two areas are sites of other T. rex skeletons which were previously uncovered and auctioned off.

Three years ago, a skeleton named “Stan” sold for nearly $32 million, and more than 50 years ago, Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History bought “Sue” for $8.4 million.