4 months ago
Sampson, a fossilized Tyrannosaurus rex, still needs a home after bidders failed to meet the minimum price at a Las Vegas auction.
But Tom Lindgren of Bonhams & Butterfields says the auction
house is talking with a number of institutions and individuals, and is confident a sale will be completed in the next couple of weeks. The auctioneer had hoped Saturday's bids would top $6 million for the T. rex dubbed "Sampson" at the auction.
Lindgren says the highest bid today was $3.7 million. Experts say the 170 bones discovered about 17 years ago in South Dakota represent more than half the skeleton of a 40-foot-long, 7.5 ton dinosaur that lived 66 million years ago.
A similar T. rex fossil sold for $8.3 million in 1997.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
