Swiss auctioneers are preparing to sell a rare 67-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex (T. rex) skeleton at auction on Tuesday.
Just over half of the 293 bones in the mounted T. rex, dubbed "TRX-293 Trinity," are "original bone material" from three different specimens discovered between 2008 and 2013 in the US states of Wyoming and Montana, according to Koller auctions in Zurich.
The dinosaur stands 11.6 metres long and 3.9 metres tall, according to Koller. Among its most remarkable features is an intact 1.4 metre-long skull.
Koller scientific advisor and consultant Nils Knötschke, who prepared the fossils, called the skull "very fragile and very rare."
The auction house's website notes that nearly all other comparable T. rex skeletons are housed in museums, making the skeleton up for auction on Tuesday "a unique specimen available for purchase."
