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Lot Essay
The incredible survival of this skeleton is the result of fossilization, a process which took place over millions of years. After the Tyrannosaurus rex died in a small streambed, its body was disarticulated by the stream. Some of the bones were carried away, but the majority of the skeleton was then gradually covered with sand, mud and leaves. Because of the thick layer of leaves found close to the bone layer, it is believed that Stan died sometime in the late summer or early fall. Over time, most of the bone cells were filled with minerals carried by water seeping through the sediments, which then preserved them through time.
The incredible survival of this skeleton is the result of fossilization, a process which took place over millions of years. After the Tyrannosaurus rex died in a small streambed, its body was disarticulated by the stream. Some of the bones were carried away, but the majority of the skeleton was then gradually covered with sand, mud and leaves. Because of the thick layer of leaves found close to the bone layer, it is believed that Stan died sometime in the late summer or early fall. Over time, most of the bone cells were filled with minerals carried by water seeping through the sediments, which then preserved them through time.
In the spring of 1987, amateur paleontologist Stan Sacrison was searching dinosaurs within the Hell Creek Formation: part of a sprawling geological wonder known as the Cretaceous badlands, spanning large areas of North and South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana. During the course of his search, Sacrison discovered the dinosaur’s hip bones that were weathering out of the ground. Soon after this find, the fossil was misidentified, by a vertebrate paleontologist brought to the site, as a Triceratops. As a result Sacrison was discouraged, and the remains of Stan’s skeleton lay undisturbed for another five years until 1992, when paleontologists from the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research went to see this “Triceratops.” It was immediately recognized as T. rex and three months later, the excavation ensued.
In order to be excavated safely, each individual bone from Stan’s skeleton had to be carefully removed from the host rock, cleaned, preserved, restored and recorded. Following more than 30,000 hours of manual labor, Stan was erected on a custom mount to reflect his former glory. His resurrection was celebrated with a local unveiling on Hill City’s Main Street in South Dakota, followed by his global ‘debut’ as the centerpiece of Japan’s T. rex World Expo in Tokyo in 1995.
The skeleton is testament to the behemoth scale of a live Tyrannosaurus rex, standing a towering 13 feet high, and almost 40 feet long with the tail outstretched. With almost two hundred original bones, Stan is one of the largest and most complete specimens known to exist. Stan’s immediately recognizable and enormous skull is surmounted by an aquiline snout that would have once housed an intricate system of blood vessels, functioning as a giant biological air conditioner in the hot Cretaceous landscape. With eyes the size of baseballs, Stan would have boasted keen vision to assist with hunting.
Likewise, the internal structure of the skulls reveals an impressive sense of smell. Although no T. rex brain has been yet been preserved to the present day, the highly detailed brain cavity left behind indicates that a major part of the brain was dedicated to the ‘olfactory bulbs’. The large space set aside for these ‘bulbs’ confirm Stan’s identity as a carnivore, and would have equipped him for hunting at night and over long distances. Through this potent combination of acute sight, keen sense of smell, agility, cunning, and brute strength, Stan would have thrived as a predator with no competitors or threats other than another T. rex.
Further to the skull’s visual impact, Stan’s monumental remains emphatically display the deadly capability of a fully grown Tyrannosaurus rex. Stan’s skull is one of the most complete T. rex examples known to science, and could hold as many as 58 functioning teeth at any time. The longest of Stan’s teeth measures more than 11 inches. Each tooth has serrated edges which could crush and slice straight through the flesh and bone of its prey. In 2005 Stan’s skull was modelled and tested to recreate a bite force of four tons per square inch – easily enough to crush a car. With vicious puncture wounds to his skull that a T. rex tooth would neatly fit into, Stan himself was a wounded warrior who most likely suffered and survived attacks by his own species.
In his life, Stan would have grown from humble beginnings into an apex predator. He would have hatched from a large, elongated egg much like a modern bird, defenseless and – according to recent scientific research – most likely covered in feathers. As a juvenile Stan would have been vulnerable and no larger than a small turkey, requiring the continued protection of his parents. At his largest, Stan would have boasted a body mass between 7 and 8 tons – twice as heavy as the average modern African elephant.
Although debate has raged as to whether the T. rex was a hunter or scavenger, Stan’s arsenal was fully equipped for hunting independently or in a group of Tyrannosaurs (aptly known as a ‘terror’). Stan’s killer instinct was confirmed during the excavation of his skeleton in 1992, when he was found with the fossilized and partially digested remains of an Edmontosaurus vertebra and a partial Triceratops tibia. These bones each had bite marks, revealing how Stan could hunt, kill, and devour even the largest and well-protected herbivores.
Given the size and deadly nature of Tyrannosaurus rex, it comes as no surprise that the species became a pop culture icon, boasting a movie career over a century old. The ‘debut’ of the T. rex on-screen came just 15 years after the dinosaur was first discovered, with the American production Ghost of Slumber Mountain (1918). Through a groundbreaking combination of live action and stop-motion, the “lumbering monsters of yesteryear” became an unforgettable presence in the fantasy genre, terrifying audiences ever since. Further representations of the T. rex can be found horrifying human explorers in The Lost World (1925), battling the eponymous great ape in King Kong (1933), and terrorizing park-goers in the blockbuster Jurassic Park (1993) and Jurassic World (2015) franchises.
Stan himself can boast a unique celebrity status; upon returning from his tour of Japan in 1995-1996, he was exhibited at the museum of the Black Hills Institute, where he has been for over two decades. Casts of Stan’s skeleton have been produced for dozens of science and natural history museums across the Americas, Europe and Asia, making Stan’s reign a truly global one. The subject of dozens of academic articles, Stan is recognized and revered as a scientific and cultural sensation. As the most reproduced T. rex fossil, Stan is almost certainly the most viewed and widely exhibited dinosaur of all time. Stan’s popularity was further driven by T. rex discoveries in the region during the 1990’s, including “Sue” in 1990, who now resides at the Chicago Field Museum. Such revelations caused a rapid boom of global public interest in Tyrannosaurus rex and Stan proved to be one of the best examples ever discovered.
More than fifty Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons have been uncovered since 1902, with the majority populating world-leading natural history museums and paleontological institutions. The appearance of a T. rex skeleton at auction is a significant event, made all the more special with a specimen as well-preserved and scientifically valuable as the present lot. Stan marks a once-in-a-generation opportunity to acquire the extraordinary fossil skeleton of the most famous dinosaur species ever to have lived.
The incredible survival of this skeleton is the result of fossilization, a process which took place over millions of years. After the Tyrannosaurus rex died in a small streambed, its body was disarticulated by the stream. Some of the bones were carried away, but the majority of the skeleton was then gradually covered with sand, mud and leaves. Because of the thick layer of leaves found close to the bone layer, it is believed that Stan died sometime in the late summer or early fall. Over time, most of the bone cells were filled with minerals carried by water seeping through the sediments, which then preserved them through time.
In the spring of 1987, amateur paleontologist Stan Sacrison was searching dinosaurs within the Hell Creek Formation: part of a sprawling geological wonder known as the Cretaceous badlands, spanning large areas of North and South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana. During the course of his search, Sacrison discovered the dinosaur’s hip bones that were weathering out of the ground. Soon after this find, the fossil was misidentified, by a vertebrate paleontologist brought to the site, as a Triceratops. As a result Sacrison was discouraged, and the remains of Stan’s skeleton lay undisturbed for another five years until 1992, when paleontologists from the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research went to see this “Triceratops.” It was immediately recognized as T. rex and three months later, the excavation ensued.
In order to be excavated safely, each individual bone from Stan’s skeleton had to be carefully removed from the host rock, cleaned, preserved, restored and recorded. Following more than 30,000 hours of manual labor, Stan was erected on a custom mount to reflect his former glory. His resurrection was celebrated with a local unveiling on Hill City’s Main Street in South Dakota, followed by his global ‘debut’ as the centerpiece of Japan’s T. rex World Expo in Tokyo in 1995.
The skeleton is testament to the behemoth scale of a live Tyrannosaurus rex, standing a towering 13 feet high, and almost 40 feet long with the tail outstretched. With almost two hundred original bones, Stan is one of the largest and most complete specimens known to exist. Stan’s immediately recognizable and enormous skull is surmounted by an aquiline snout that would have once housed an intricate system of blood vessels, functioning as a giant biological air conditioner in the hot Cretaceous landscape. With eyes the size of baseballs, Stan would have boasted keen vision to assist with hunting.
Likewise, the internal structure of the skulls reveals an impressive sense of smell. Although no T. rex brain has been yet been preserved to the present day, the highly detailed brain cavity left behind indicates that a major part of the brain was dedicated to the ‘olfactory bulbs’. The large space set aside for these ‘bulbs’ confirm Stan’s identity as a carnivore, and would have equipped him for hunting at night and over long distances. Through this potent combination of acute sight, keen sense of smell, agility, cunning, and brute strength, Stan would have thrived as a predator with no competitors or threats other than another T. rex.
Further to the skull’s visual impact, Stan’s monumental remains emphatically display the deadly capability of a fully grown Tyrannosaurus rex. Stan’s skull is one of the most complete T. rex examples known to science, and could hold as many as 58 functioning teeth at any time. The longest of Stan’s teeth measures more than 11 inches. Each tooth has serrated edges which could crush and slice straight through the flesh and bone of its prey. In 2005 Stan’s skull was modelled and tested to recreate a bite force of four tons per square inch – easily enough to crush a car. With vicious puncture wounds to his skull that a T. rex tooth would neatly fit into, Stan himself was a wounded warrior who most likely suffered and survived attacks by his own species.
In his life, Stan would have grown from humble beginnings into an apex predator. He would have hatched from a large, elongated egg much like a modern bird, defenseless and – according to recent scientific research – most likely covered in feathers. As a juvenile Stan would have been vulnerable and no larger than a small turkey, requiring the continued protection of his parents. At his largest, Stan would have boasted a body mass between 7 and 8 tons – twice as heavy as the average modern African elephant.
Although debate has raged as to whether the T. rex was a hunter or scavenger, Stan’s arsenal was fully equipped for hunting independently or in a group of Tyrannosaurs (aptly known as a ‘terror’). Stan’s killer instinct was confirmed during the excavation of his skeleton in 1992, when he was found with the fossilized and partially digested remains of an Edmontosaurus vertebra and a partial Triceratops tibia. These bones each had bite marks, revealing how Stan could hunt, kill, and devour even the largest and well-protected herbivores.
Given the size and deadly nature of Tyrannosaurus rex, it comes as no surprise that the species became a pop culture icon, boasting a movie career over a century old. The ‘debut’ of the T. rex on-screen came just 15 years after the dinosaur was first discovered, with the American production Ghost of Slumber Mountain (1918). Through a groundbreaking combination of live action and stop-motion, the “lumbering monsters of yesteryear” became an unforgettable presence in the fantasy genre, terrifying audiences ever since. Further representations of the T. rex can be found horrifying human explorers in The Lost World (1925), battling the eponymous great ape in King Kong (1933), and terrorizing park-goers in the blockbuster Jurassic Park (1993) and Jurassic World (2015) franchises.
Stan himself can boast a unique celebrity status; upon returning from his tour of Japan in 1995-1996, he was exhibited at the museum of the Black Hills Institute, where he has been for over two decades. Casts of Stan’s skeleton have been produced for dozens of science and natural history museums across the Americas, Europe and Asia, making Stan’s reign a truly global one. The subject of dozens of academic articles, Stan is recognized and revered as a scientific and cultural sensation. As the most reproduced T. rex fossil, Stan is almost certainly the most viewed and widely exhibited dinosaur of all time. Stan’s popularity was further driven by T. rex discoveries in the region during the 1990’s, including “Sue” in 1990, who now resides at the Chicago Field Museum. Such revelations caused a rapid boom of global public interest in Tyrannosaurus rex and Stan proved to be one of the best examples ever discovered.
More than fifty Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons have been uncovered since 1902, with the majority populating world-leading natural history museums and paleontological institutions. The appearance of a T. rex skeleton at auction is a significant event, made all the more special with a specimen as well-preserved and scientifically valuable as the present lot. Stan marks a once-in-a-generation opportunity to acquire the extraordinary fossil skeleton of the most famous dinosaur species ever to have lived.