Fossil of Dinosaurs Locked in Mortal Combat May Fetch $9 Million at Auction

Fossils of two dinosaurs that met their end locked in mortal combat will be put up for auction this November at Bonhams in New York City.

The two nearly complete skeletons, found in Montana in 2006 in the fossil-rich "Hell Creek" formation, are expected to fetch anywhere from $7 million to $9 million, the auction house said Monday.

"The fully articulated skeletons show the well-matched foes were locked in mortal combat, each inflicting fatal wounds on the other," Bonhams reported in its assessment of the lot.

Bonhams reports the skeletons to be of a carnivorous Nanotyrannus lancensis, a type of pygmy T. rex, and a herbivorous Chasmosaurine ceratopsian, a close relative to the Triceratops.

"Both would have stood about eight feet high and measured between 25 and 35 feet long," Bonhams said. "The fully articulated skeletons show the well-matched foes were locked in mortal combat, each inflicting fatal wounds on the other. Nanotyrannus teeth are present in the skull of the Chasmosaurine, while the Nanotyrannus' skull and chest appear to have been crushed laterally, as though kicked."

Considering their state, it is believed that the dueling dinosaurs were buried shortly after their fatal struggle.

Bonthams reports that the dinosaurs "may hold the key to answering one of the most puzzling questions for paleontologists today."

Paleontologists are divided over whether the Nanotyrannus' are their own own genus or whether the creatures are simply juvenile Tyrannosaurus Rexes.

However, selling the rare fossil specimen at auction poses the risk that a private collector could buy it, thus keeping it out of museums and the hands of researchers wishing to study it further.

Both the Smithsonian and the American Museum of Natural History were offered the chance to buy the fossil before the auction was arranged, but each of the institutions passed up the opportunity, according to United Press International.

Thomas Carr, the senior scientific adviser at the Dinosaur Discovery Museum and director of the Carthage Institute of Paleontology in Wisconsin, told the UPI that the auction of the fossils and the high price they will command will line the seller's pockets but that it "hurts science" because it's unlikely the specimens will continued to be studied if placed in a private collection.

A museum could still make a bid on the fossils at or before auction, but it's unlikely a museum could afford as much as $9 million for the "Montana Dueling Dragons," as the specimen as come to be known.