TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
'Saber-toothed tiger' skeleton sells for more than $84,000
Change Size
A rare saber-toothed cat's skeleton is displayed at 'Piguet Hotel des Ventes' auction house during a sale preview in Geneva, on December 1, 2020. (AFP/Fabrice Coffrini)
A
nearly 40-million-year-old skeleton belonging to what is popularly called a saber-toothed tiger has sold for $84,350, a year after its discovery on a US ranch.
The skeleton, about 120 centimeters long, was snapped up by a private collector in just one minute at an auction in Geneva on Tuesday.
The original bones are those of a Hoplophoneus -- not technically cats, they are an extinct genus of the Nimravidae family and once stalked the plains of North America.
Such extinct predatory mammals are commonly known as saber-toothed tigers.
Also on sale was a Tyrannosaurus Rex tooth which fetched just over $6,000, while a 85-cm long fin from a mosasaur -- a marine reptile that in the Cretaceous period was at the top of the submarine food chain -- was bought for almost $8,000.
Read also: 'Saber-toothed tiger' skeleton up for auction
A 75-million-year-old ammolite -- an opal-like organic gemstone in shades of red and orange -- measuring 40 cm long by 36 cm wide remained unsold because the reserve price was not met.
Debate rages as to the right balance between the scientific value of such items and their worth on the open market.
Some paleontologists insist animal or plant fossils are not decorative objects for collectors, but witness to the evolution of life on Earth and therefore scientific articles that ought to be studied and then shared with the public in museums.
Before the sale, Swiss collector Yann Cuenin told AFP: "If we're talking about the saber-toothed tiger, for example, it's not a skeleton which is of major scientific interest, in the sense that it's something which is already known to science.
"I am all for museums, but I am also in favor of objects living among us; for there to be collectors, for pieces to be bought and sold -- that's what brings culture to life."
