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Big
John - named after the owner of the land where the dinosaur's
bones were found - roamed modern-day South Dakota more than 66
million years ago.
"It's being acquired by an American collector, and that
individual is absolutely thrilled with the idea of being able to
bring a piece like this to his personal use," said Djuan Rivers,
a representative for the buyer.
The first piece of bone from the supersized skeleton - the skull
alone is 2.62 meters long and two meters wide - was found in
2014.
By 2015, paleontologists had unearthed 60% of the skeleton, a
rare feat, made of over 200 pieces which were painstakingly put
together in Italy, to prepare for the Paris auction.
The skull showed a traumatic lesion, which researchers said was
likely the work of another triceratops striking it from behind.
"The history behind this and the curation of it is absolutely
impressive, so to be able to be a part of preserving something
of this nature that was actually found in the U.S., in South
Dakota, is also something extremely special," Rivers said.
The name triceratops means "three-horned face".
The hammer price at the Drouot auction house, before commission
and other costs, was 5.5 million euros. Drouot had estimated the
skeleton would fetch between 1.2-1.5 million euros. It sold to
an unidentified private U.S. buyer.
"It's a record for Europe," said auctioneer Alexandre Giquello,
who described exponential growth in the relatively new market of
dinosaur fossils. "We're creating a market."
Auction house Christie's sold a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton for
$31.8 million in New York last year.
($1 = 0.8589 euros)
(Reporting by Michaela Cabrera; Writing by Ingrid Melander;
Editing by Mike Collett-White)
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