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The Bone Collectors

Demand for rare dinosaur fossils has been heating up, even as the major auction houses struggle to tame the “Wild West” quality of an immature market without many comparisons.

Cassandra Hatton with Ceratosaurus nasicornis sotheby's
Prices and demand for dinosaur fossils are at an all-time high, driven in part by headline-grabbing prices in recent years and a desire by today’s collectors to own rare and unique objects. Photo: Matthew Sherman/Courtesy of Sotheby’s
Julie Brener Davich
July 6, 2025

Next Wednesday, Sotheby’s will auction its latest dinosaur skeleton: a 6-foot-tall, 10-foot-wide, 150-million-year-old mounted juvenile ceratosaurus, estimated at $4 million. It’s one of 122 lots in the house’s national history auction, which, along with a pair of online sales—History of Science & Technology and Space Exploration—has, rather aptly, led to the moniker “Geek Week” for this upcoming auction window.