NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� The most ever discovered will be on view in New York starting this weekend, American Museum of Natural History officials announced Wednesday.
The giant stegosaurus fossil, dubbed 鈥淎pex,鈥� is 11 feet (3.3 meters) tall and 27 feet (8.2 meters) nose to tail. The display will start in a giant atrium at the museum鈥檚 entrance before being moved to the museum's existing fossil halls next year.
The museum also confirmed the identity of the philanthropist who purchased Apex. Billionaire hedge fund manager and longtime museum donor Ken Griffin bought it at an for $45 million, the most ever paid for dinosaur remains. , president of the American Museum of Natural History, said that Griffin approved a long-term loan of Apex, as well as allowing scientists to take samples from the fossil for analysis.
鈥淭his partnership allows Apex to have pride of place at a museum world-renowned for its dinosaur collection and for its longstanding leadership in paleontology and, even more exciting, enables us to pursue specialized Stegosaurus research centered around this extraordinary and scientifically important specimen,鈥� Decatur said in a statement Wednesday.
Of the more than 80 stegosauri made available to scientific institutions, very few are substantially complete, the statement said. Apex is the most specimen ever found, Decatur said. With about 80% of its 320 bones preserved, it is miraculous for creature that has been dead for 150 million years. The specimen is also prized by scientists because it is estimated to have died at a relatively old age, and it could reveal insights into stegosaurus metabolism and bone growth.
Scientists will make of the internal structures of the dinosaur's skull and analyze a small sample extracted from one of its giant thigh bones, the statement said.
鈥淎s exciting as is it is to have this dinosaur on display, it is even more exciting to have the opportunity to study it and make important scientific data available for research,鈥� said Roger Benson, who curates the American Museum of Natural History's fossil amphibians, reptiles, birds and plants.
The museum鈥檚 paleontologists have a long record of breaking ground in dinosaur research, including identifying the first dinosaur eggs and early evidence of , the statement said.
Commercial paleontologist Jason Cooper discovered in Apex on his land near Dinosaur, Colorado, on the Utah border near Dinosaur National Monument.
Griffin's successful $44.6 million bid for Apex over the summer set a record for dinosaur remains, beating out the $31.8 million paid for 鈥淪tan,鈥� the remains of a sold in 2020. Like Apex, the Stan fossils were purchased by a private individual with plans to make it available to the public. The T. rex has been slated to be in Abu Dhabi, in United Arab Emirates, at a museum that opens in 2025.
The Associated Press
