Sold! Diplodocus skeleton auctioned in Britain for $652,000

Nov. 27 (UPI) -- A near complete skeleton of a Diplodocus, named Misty, has been sold for £400,000 to an undisclosed buyer at the Summers Place Auctions in Sussex, England. The skeleton is one of only six complete skeletons of the 56-foot-long dinosaur, as most fossils are ravaged by scavengers or washed away by rain and water.

The dinosaur was discovered by German palaeontologist Raimund Albersdoerfer and his sons in Wyoming and assembled in Rotterdam. Before the auction, auctioneer James Rylands said: "We will be sorry to see her go -- the downside of being an auctioneer is that once you've sold something you very seldom get to see it again.

But Rupert van der Werff, from the auction house, says that while he can't reveal the buyer, he can say "it is going on public display."

[BBC]