Rare fossils from the age of dinosaurs to go up for auction

[Pteranodon skeleton]

[Cassandra Hatton, senior vice president, Sotheby’s, pointing at Pteranodon skeleton]

Cassandra Hatton (interview): “This is a pteranodon longiceps. This is an incredibly rare specimen at this level of preservation. It’s enormous, 19-foot (5.8-metre) wingspan. And to get something of this size with the level of preservation is incredibly rare. Generally, if you go to a museum and you find a specimen that’s super well preserved, it’s going to be something on the smaller side. When you think about it, geologically speaking, the larger the creature is, the higher the chances are that it’s going to be spread out, that pieces are lost, that parts were eroded away. So when you get something large that is super well preserved, that’s a big deal.”

[Pteranodon]

[Plesiosaur]

Cassandra Hatton (interview): “This is from the Cretaceous period, which is about 85 million years old. This is Jurassic. And we’re looking at about 190 million years old. So much older specimen. This comes from the United States. This was found in England, in the Blockley Quarry. For any fossils to be created, you need to have the right type of soil and water. So the region that both of these were found in were originally completely covered in water. And we had the right types of minerals to create a high-quality specimen.”

[Pteranodon]

Cassandra Hatton (interview): “To get the really high-quality specimens, that doesn’t happen too frequently. I think something else that’s contributing to this kind of kick in the market is auction houses like Sotheby’s being interested in it. Like you need specialists who work in an environment like this to be excited about the material and also understanding what types of documentation, the kinds of people who are going to spend millions of dollars on things need. Those people need to know where these specimens legally sourced, where are they coming from, show me the documentation, etc. I think for a long time, in the natural history field, you would find specimens that didn’t have that level of documentation. So there was a bit of a misunderstanding or maybe just not an understanding of what someone who’s going to spend this much money really needs in order to feel comfortable to spend that kind of money. It’s not enough to just tell somebody, ‘Oh, it’s a T-Rex. And it’s great.’ They want to know, is it legal? Can I get it insured? Can I loan it to a museum? Can my kids inherit it? Can I take out a loan against it? Like, how can I prove that this is correct? And I think because we’ve now had that field merging with the auction world where we do this for everything, right? Like we rigorously research the provenance, we look at the market conditions, we make sure everything every “T” gets crossed and every “I” is dotted. That’s really transformed the value of these pieces.”

[Plesiosaur]

This script was provided by The Associated Press.