Sotheby’s auctions to sell 66-million-year-old Triceratops dinosaur skull on July 28

CAIRO – 24 July 2022: Sotheby's International Auctions announced placing a Triceratops dinosaur skull for sale with an estimated price starting from $250,000 to $350,000.

The auction is scheduled to open on July 28.

Sotheby's auction house clarified that the Triceratops skull dates back to the late Cretaceous period, about 66 million years ago. Its height is 228 cm and its width is 145 cm. The eyebrow horns are 93 cm long, and the skull weighs 200 kg.

The dinosaur's skull on sale at Sotheby's - social media

The sample shows how well it is still preserving the details of the normal surface of the bone. Both the large and magnificent supraorbital brow horns clearly show the numerous deep branching grooves and grooves that housed the foramina and feeding channels that supplied the outer bone sheaths with blood.

Triceratops is one of the most famous dinosaurs in the world. This is due in large part to their distinctive bony frills, keratinized beaks, and three-horned skulls. Frightening in appearance, their horns have long been considered a primarily defensive function.

The large bony collar at the back of the Triceratops skull served as a shield protecting the neck and shoulders from attack by large predators, such as Tyrannosaurus rex, which lived in the same area.

Based on the ailments found in various fossils, these two iconic dinosaurs are now known to have had frequent battles, as often depicted in dinosaur media.

This particular type of Triceratops was first discovered in Wyoming by John Bell Hatcher in 1886. It belongs to the family Ceratopsidae, which is characterized by horns, rows of cutting teeth in the back of the jaw, and nasal horns. Ceratopsids belong to the larger Ornithischian order, which includes all dinosaurs with "bird-like" hips and beak-like predatory structures.