Barry, a 150-million-year-old rare dinosaur to be auctioned in Europe

An extremely rare, well-preserved dinosaur skeleton will be sold at an auction in Paris next month.The reptile, dated to be 150 million-year-old is a camptosaurus,going by the nickname 'Barry'.

Barry, standing tall at 2.1 metres and fivemetres wide, was first discovered inWyoming in the 1990s. It was initially restored in 2000 by palaeontologist Barry James, from whom it got its name.

Currently, Barry is with the Italian laboratory Zoic which acquired the precious skeleton last year and has done additional restoration work on the body.

Alexandre Giquello, representative of the Paris auction house Drouot, where the sale will take place, said Barry "is an extremely well-preserved specimen, which is quite rare".

"The skull is complete at 90 per centand the rest of the dinosaur is complete at 80 per cent," he said.

According to the auction house, the skeleton, which will be presented to the public in mid-October, is currently valued above $1.28 million. Experts, however, believe that the figure is rather conservative and it may go up as the auction date (October 20) approaches.

T-Rex skeleton fetches record amount

Dinosaur skeletons and other specimens belonging to the majestic reptile that once roamed the face of the Earth remain highly sought after by collectors. No more than a couple of sales take place in a year worldwide which attracts enormous attention.

Notably, in April, a 67-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus-Rex skeleton named 'Trinity' was auctioned in Switzerland. It was the first time that an entire T-Rex skeleton had gone under the hammer and fetched a record sum of $6.1 million at the Koller auction house.

Trinity had been composed using the bone material of three T-Rex specimens. They were excavated between 2008-2013 in the US states of Montana and Wyoming. The Hell Creek and Lance Creek formations in the respective states are well-known for the discoveries of two other T-Rex skeletons that have gone under the hammer.

The sale was rare as only 32 skeletons of adult T-Rex- one of the largest apex predators to have ever lived - have been discovered worldwide.

(With inputs from agencies)

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