T-Rex tooth bought for $56,250

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- The tooth fairy is a piker compared with the bidder in Los Angeles who plunked down a world record $56,250 Sunday for a Tyrannosaurus Rex tooth.

Bonham auction house said the dinosaur tooth, discovered this past summer in Garfield County, Mont., and one of the largest ever found at 5 1/8 inches from base to tip, had only been expected to bring $25,000-$30,000 at its natural history auction. Instead, it garnered the most ever paid for a prehistoric tooth at public auction, Bonham said in a release.

Bidders also paid $116,500 for a saber-toothed tiger skull and vertebrae. The fossil had been expected to fetch $50,000-$60,000, the auction house said.

A 51-million-year-old palm flower fossil sold for $50,000.

In all, the auction brought in $1.22 million.