Dinosaur fossil responsible for inspiring ‘Jurassic Park’ sold for almost £10m

The fossil of the terrifying dinosaur that inspired Jurassic Park has sold for almost £10million ($12.4M) at auction.

The apex predator Deinonychus antirrhopus, named Hector, is over 100 million years old and stands at four feet tall and 10 feet long.

The Deinonychus became one of the world’s most recognisable dinosaurs after it featured in the 1993 blockbuster ‘Jurassic Park’.

Although its true name wasn’t actually used in the blockbuster franchise or the book which it was based on.

Instead author Michael Crichton referred to it as its much smaller relative, the velociraptor, as reported by the Daily Mail.

The specimen is said to be in a “remarkable state of preservation” and consists of 126 original fossils on a custom-built frame, according to Christie’s auction house in New York.

Hector is the largest and most complete specimen of its kind ever discovered – although part of its skeleton and most of its skull are reconstructed, the auction house said.

He is also said to be the world’s only privately owned Deinonychus fossil, as most dinosaur fossils belong to museums.

The lot was expected to sell for somewhere between $4 to $6 million but instead brought in a jaw-dropping $12.4 million on Wednesday (May 11).

It was purchased by an anonymous buyer.

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The specimen, which dates to the Cretaceous period was evacuated from Montana back in 2013 by Jack and Roberta Owen, self-taught paleontologists,

However, Hector isn’t the first dinosaur to be privately sold. In 2020, a T.rex skeleton sold for a record-breaking $31.8 million to an unidentified bidder.

In 2021, the world’s largest Triceratops skeleton sold for $7.7 million.