Curios is my blog series on strange things that pop up at auction houses, in this case, fossils. On May 20, the Natural History Signature auction will take place at Center 548 at 548 West 22nd Street, between 10th Avenue and West 22nd Street, in New York City. The star of the auction is a Tyrannosaurus bataar (above), a smaller Asian counterpart to North America's Tyrannosaurus Rex. This Tarbosaurus is expected to fetch over $1 million. More fossils on the block below the jump. Descriptions and images are taken from the linked pages at the Heritage Auctions site. There are some much more recent pre-historic artifacts as well, such as Paleolithic and Neolithic axes for sale. And one lot of Wooly Mammoth wool (below).
A truly fantastical Ankylosaurid skull from a Cretaceous era Saichania chulsanensis, literally meaning "Beautiful one."
A very fine Cretaceous-era Troodontidae, or "Bird-Dinosaur" skeleton, 28 inches in length and 17-1/2 inches high, estimated at $45,000+.
A superb "Duck-Billed" dinosaur skull from an Edmontosaurus annectens out of the Hell Creek Formation in Montana, an amazing 75-80% original and 47 inches long overall (estimate: $35,000+).
A superlative American Mosasaur skull (Tylosaurus kansasensis) — a family of serpentine marine reptiles, apex predators and the scourge of the many and varied ocean-dwelling creatures with which they shared the ancient waters from the Smoky Hill Chalk, Niobrara Formation in Western Kansas, USA, estimated at $30,000+.
Skeleton cast. Smilodon fatalis. Pleistocene. The Great Saber-Toothed Tiger ... ranged throughout North America during the last Ice Age. Fossils belonging to these extraordinary cats are not found outside of the New World and are therefore considered an American paleontological symbol.
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