2026年7月14日 美国东部时间12:36 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻（CBS News）
作者：埃米莉·梅·查霍尔
埃米莉·梅·查霍尔是CBSNews.com的记者兼新闻编辑，主要报道突发新闻、极端天气和气候议题。她曾为《洛杉矶时报》、BuzzFeed和《新闻周刊》等媒体撰稿。
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一具巨型霸王龙骨架于周二在纽约的一场拍卖会上以5010万美元的价格售出，创下了恐龙化石拍卖价格的新纪录。
这只被昵称为“格斯”的霸王龙体型庞大，据举办此次历史性拍卖的苏富比拍卖行介绍，它身高12.5英尺，体长约38英尺。拍卖行称，这具组装完成的化石由183块不同的骨骼组成，此外还有数十块未计入官方骨骼统计数量的稀有肋骨标本，是迄今为止发现的体型最大、保存最完整的霸王龙骨架之一。
格斯是以完整组装结构进行拍卖的，可直接用于展览陈列。上一次如此完整的恐龙骨架拍出如此高价还要追溯到两年前的几乎同一天，当时苏富比拍卖了一具名为“埃佩克斯”的剑龙骨架，成交价接近4500万美元，当时创下了新的拍卖纪录，远超其400万至600万美元的预估成交价。
据苏富比官网信息，拍卖行此前预估格斯的成交价将在2000万至3000万美元之间。但仅经过10分钟的竞价窗口，这具骨架就成为了“拍卖史上售价最高的恐龙化石”，共有七位竞标者参与了此次拍卖。
苏富比副主席卡桑德拉·哈顿在一份声明中表示，此次拍卖的结果“是多年筹备的成果”，并称赞了托马斯·海特坎普——他与团队在南达科他州哈丁县发掘出了这具霸王龙遗骸。这具巨型霸王龙骨架是以已故养牛场主加里·“格斯”·利金的名字命名的，海特坎普最初正是在加里拥有的土地上发现了这些化石。
据苏富比介绍，这具霸王龙生活在约6700万年前的白垩纪晚期。它是在南达科他州的地狱溪地层被发现的，该地区是世界上最著名的恐龙化石遗址之一，此前已有多类似化石在此出土。
但发掘出格斯这样完整的骨架极为罕见。苏富比称，自1902年古生物学家在蒙大拿州东南部发现第一具霸王龙骨架以来，全球仅发现了32具霸王龙骨架。其中，在格斯被发现之前，仅有两具骨架的完整度达到了60%以上。第一具名为“苏”，目前在芝加哥菲尔德博物馆展出；第二具名为“斯坦”，现藏于阿布扎比自然历史博物馆。
据苏富比介绍，格斯的骨架完整度约为61%，其中包含了拍卖行所称的“保存异常完好的头骨”。
“对我而言，额外的惊喜在于，‘格斯’只是加里和我曾热爱并乐于分享的这片土地上隐藏的众多历史片段之一，”加里·利金的妻子达娜·利金在一份声明中说道，“期待看到能有更多人有幸欣赏到这一壮观的发现。”
Rare T. rex fossil sells for record $50.1 million at auction
July 14, 2026 12:36 PM EDT / CBS News
By Emily Mae Czachor
Emily Mae Czachor is a reporter and news editor at CBSNews.com. She typically covers breaking news, extreme weather and climate. Emily Mae previously wrote for outlets like the Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed and Newsweek.
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A giant Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton sold for $50.1 million at an auction in New York on Tuesday, marking a new record price for a dinosaur fossil.
The T. rex, nicknamed Gus, is a towering figure, standing at 12.5 feet fall and roughly 38 feet long, according to Sotheby’s, the auction house that hosted the historic bid. Composed of 183 different bones, in addition to dozens of rare rib specimens that aren’t included in technical bone counts, the assembled fossil is among the largest and most complete T. rex skeletons ever discovered, the auction house said.
Gus was auctioned off as a fully mounted structure, ready to be placed in an exhibit. The last time such an intact dinosaur skeleton sold for such a comparably high price was two years ago, almost to the date, when Sotheby’s auctioned off the mounted bones of a stegosaurus called Apex for nearly $45 million. It was a record sale at the time, which significantly exceeded the estimated price range of $4 to $6 million.
Sotheby’s had predicted that Gus would sell for $20 or $30 million, according to its website. But, after only a 10-minute bidding window, the skeleton became “the most valuable dinosaur ever sold at auction,” the auction house said. Just seven bidders participated in the auction.
A massive T. rex skeleton sold for a record $50.1 million at an auction on Tuesday. Matthew Sherman/Sotheby’s
Cassandra Hatton, Sotheby’s vice chair, said in a statement that the auction’s outcome “has been years in the making,” crediting Thomas Heitkamp, who led the excavation to uncover the T. rex remnants alongside a team in Harding County, South Dakota. The colossal dinosaur skeleton is named after the late cattle rancher Gary “Gus” Licking, who owned the land on which Heitkamp initially found the fossils.
The T. rex dates back to the late Cretaceous period, approximately 67 million years ago, according to Sotheby’s. Its discovery in South Dakota’s Hell Creek Formation followed a number of similar finds in that region, which is one of the most renowned sites of dinosaur fossils in the world.
But unearthing one like Gus is incredibly uncommon. According to Sotheby’s, just 32 T. rex skeletons have been found since the first was discovered by a paleontologist in southeastern Montana in 1902. Of them, just two, before Gus, proved to be at least 60% complete. The first, called Sue, is now on display at the Chicago Field Museum, while the second, called Stan, is at the Natural History Museum in Abu Dhabi, the auction house said.
The skeleton of Gus is roughly 61% complete, according to Sotheby’s, and it includes what the auction house described as “an exceptionally preserved skull.”
“For me the added bonus was knowing that ‘Gus’ was just one of the many pieces of history hidden in the land that Gary and I loved to share,” said Dana Licking, Gary Licking’s wife, in a statement. “It will be exciting to see how many others will get to enjoy this spectacular discovery.”
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