For decades, one of palaeontology’s most captivating arguments centred on a deceptively simple question: was the creature known as Nanotyrannus lancensis its own distinct predator, or merely a young Tyrannosaurus rex yet to reach its fearsome prime? Last autumn, that debate was finally laid to rest. And now, riding the wave of that landmark scientific reckoning, Sotheby’s is bringing one of the most extraordinary fossil specimens ever offered at auction to its New York saleroom: a mounted Nanotyrannus skeleton known as “Jodi,” estimated at between six and nine million dollars.
The dedicated live sale takes place on 27 October at Sotheby’s New York, with a public exhibition opening at the auction house’s galleries at the Breuer building on 13 October. For collectors, natural history enthusiasts, and institutions alike, the opportunity to acquire “Jodi” is genuinely unprecedented: the chance to own a specimen of a genus only recently confirmed to exist.
A Scientific Breakthrough Sets The Stage
To fully appreciate why “Jodi” matters, one must first understand what happened in the scientific community just last year. In October 2025, a paper authored by Drs Lindsay Zanno and James Napoli was published in the journal Nature, drawing on exhaustive research across more than 200 tyrannosaur fossils. Their conclusion was unequivocal: Nanotyrannus was not a juvenile T. rex. It was, and always had been, its own valid genus: a fast, highly specialised carnivorous tyrannosaurid that roamed what is now North America approximately 67 million years ago, at the very close of the Cretaceous period, coexisting alongside the far larger Tyrannosaurus rex.
The paper, which drew substantially on the celebrated Nanotyrannus specimen known as “Bloody Mary,” one half of the famed “Dueling Dinosaurs,” identified two distinct species within the genus: N. lancensis and N. lethaeus. The implications for both palaeontology and the fossil collecting world were immediate and profound. A field that had long resisted the notion of a separate genus now formally embraced it, and the conversation around these slender, sharp-toothed predators shifted entirely.
This scientific validation forms the essential backdrop against which “Jodi” now enters the market. She is the first Nanotyrannus to come to auction following the confirmation of the genus’s validity, a distinction that lends her both cultural and commercial weight in equal measure.
The Elusive Predator: What Made Nanotyrannus Unique
Adult Nanotyrannus measured approximately 18 feet in length, considerably more compact than the behemoth T. rex, which reached up to 40 feet. Yet what this predator lacked in sheer scale, it compensated for in remarkable anatomical sophistication. Researchers have now identified more than 150 morphological differences between Nanotyrannus and its larger cousin, many of which point to a creature that occupied an entirely distinct ecological niche.
Among the most telling distinctions: Nanotyrannus possessed proportionally and absolutely longer forelimbs than T. rex, along with larger hand claws, features that suggest a different hunting strategy altogether. Its dentition was also notably more extensive, with up to 17 tooth sockets in the dentary compared to the 12 to 13 found in T. rex. Even the tail vertebrae differ, with Nanotyrannus carrying 35 compared to the 40 to 45 of its famous relative.
These are not subtle distinctions. They paint the picture of a predator that evolved in parallel with T. rex, carving out its own place in the Late Cretaceous ecosystem, and making every confirmed specimen of Nanotyrannus all the more scientifically and culturally significant.
The broader scientific debate stretches back nearly a century. The first major piece of the puzzle emerged with the discovery of the “Cleveland Skull,” formally designated CMNH 7541, a nearly complete, articulated skull now recognised as the type specimen for Nanotyrannus lancensis. For more than 80 years, that skull sat at the centre of an argument that divided palaeontologists across generations. It is only now, in the wake of Zanno and Napoli’s research, that the record has been definitively set straight.
Discovering “Jodi”: A Montana Story
The story of how “Jodi” came to exist as a collectible specimen is as compelling as the creature herself. She was discovered in 2019 by rancher Jodi Pierson on her privately owned land within the Hell Creek Formation in Garfield County, Montana, a region long celebrated as one of the world’s most productive fossil beds, and one intimately associated with some of the most remarkable dinosaur discoveries in history. The find site sits just eight miles from the location where the famous “Dueling Dinosaurs” were unearthed.
Following her discovery, “Jodi” was excavated by Pierson’s cousin: commercial palaeontologist Clayton Phipps, widely known in fossil circles as the “Dinosaur Cowboy.” Phipps is the same man who excavated the “Dueling Dinosaurs,” now celebrated as two of the most complete and well-preserved dinosaurs ever found, and permanently housed at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. His involvement in “Jodi’s” excavation lends the specimen an additional layer of provenance and credibility that serious collectors will find reassuring.
The discovery and excavation were captured on camera for the Discovery Channel’s reality documentary series Dino Hunters in 2020, ensuring that “Jodi’s” journey from the ground to the saleroom has been unusually well documented. That transparency around provenance, combined with the Hell Creek Formation’s exceptional fossil-preserving conditions, makes her an especially trustworthy specimen in a market where such assurances carry considerable weight.
The Specimen Herself: Anatomy Of A Masterpiece
What elevates “Jodi” above the merely remarkable and into the genuinely extraordinary is the quality and completeness of her preservation. She comprises approximately 191 fossil bone elements, a figure that places her among the finest examples of her kind ever recorded.
Her skull, in particular, is a crowning achievement. Virtually complete, it contains 53 bones, including the maxillae, fused nasals, quadratojugals, jugals, dentaries, and the braincase. It is accompanied by approximately 35 teeth in varying stages of eruption, as well as a rooted tooth fused to the right maxilla, a detail that speaks to both her maturity and the extraordinary conditions of her fossilisation.
The post-cranial skeleton is equally impressive. “Jodi” presents a complete pelvic girdle; extremely well-represented forelimbs including both ulna, humeri, and coracoids, a scapula and radius, and 15 of the 20 manus bones with all four claws present; and the complete, rare furcula, the wishbone, a feature seldom encountered in such pristine condition. A complete femur is present, along with 13 bones of the right pes, including three of the four claws.
Her axial skeleton includes six cervical, 11 dorsal, five sacral, and 15 caudal vertebrae, complemented by 15 cervical ribs, 25 dorsal ribs, 10 chevrons, and approximately half of the rarely encountered gastralia, the belly ribs, which, as osteoderms, fall outside the formal bone count. The breadth and quality of what is present ensures that “Jodi” is represented, critically, across the bulk of the anatomically diagnostic portions of her skeleton. For a genus as newly confirmed as Nanotyrannus, this is an invaluable attribute.
Measuring approximately 6.5 feet tall and 19.6 feet long when mounted, “Jodi” cuts a striking and commanding presence, more than capable of holding her own in any institutional or private setting.
Second Only To “Bloody Mary”: Where “Jodi” Stands
Of only three known mounted Nanotyrannus skeletons in existence, “Jodi” is widely considered the finest and most complete specimen currently available to collectors. That distinction comes with one caveat: she is second only to “Bloody Mary,” the Nanotyrannus that forms one half of the legendary “Dueling Dinosaurs,” a specimen that now resides within a museum collection and is, therefore, not available at any price.
The third known mounted skeleton, “Jane,” formally designated BMRP 2002.4.1, is a roughly 50 per cent complete specimen, making “Jodi’s” relative completeness all the more exceptional by comparison.
For any serious collector or institution seeking a Nanotyrannus of genuine scientific and aesthetic significance, “Jodi” is the finest realistic opportunity that exists today, and quite possibly for the foreseeable future. Those with an appetite for landmark auction offerings will also find compelling context in the Blaquier-Arrieta Collection’s $450M Sotheby’s sale, which speaks to the broader momentum gathering across the world’s most prestigious salerooms.
Cassandra Hatton On Why “Jodi” Matters
Cassandra Hatton, Sotheby’s Vice Chairman and Worldwide Head of Science and Natural History, articulates the significance of this moment with characteristic authority. “Nanotyrannus versus T. rex has long been one of the most fascinating debates in palaeontology,” she notes. “For decades, scientists have wrestled with a fundamental question: was Nanotyrannus simply an adolescent T. rex, or did it represent an entirely different genus of dinosaur? Thanks to the hard work of commercial palaeontologist Clayton Phipps, who excavated both ‘Jodi’ and the ‘Dueling Dinosaurs,’ along with groundbreaking research published last fall, this debate has been settled , Nanotyrannus is indeed a valid genus. I am absolutely thrilled to bring such a significant specimen to market and look forward to sharing this dinosaur and its true identity with the world.”
That alignment between scientific validation and commercial timing is no coincidence. Sotheby’s has long cultivated a position at the forefront of the natural history market, and “Jodi’s” arrival feels like the culmination of that strategy: a specimen whose moment has, quite literally, been 67 million years in the making.
Sotheby’s And The Natural History Market: A Record-Breaking Legacy
“Jodi” arrives at Sotheby’s on the back of a remarkable run for the natural history category. The auction house’s involvement in dinosaur sales stretches back to 1997, when the landmark auction of Sue the T. rex, the first dinosaur ever sold at auction, set a precedent that would transform the market entirely. Sue now takes pride of place at the Field Museum in Chicago.
In 2024, Apex the Stegosaurus achieved $45 million at Sotheby’s, becoming the most valuable dinosaur ever sold at the time; the specimen is now on long-term loan to the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The following year, a Ceratosaurus sold for $30.5 million, more than seven times its low estimate, to become the third-highest price ever achieved for a dinosaur at auction.
Then, just this past July, “Gus,” one of the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex specimens ever discovered, sold at Sotheby’s New York for $50.1 million, shattering all previous records to become the most valuable dinosaur ever sold at auction. Fewer than three months later, “Jodi” steps into the spotlight. For further perspective on how record-breaking auction moments are reshaping the cultural landscape, the story of Turner’s Rome from Mount Aventine and its £50M Sotheby’s auction offers a compelling parallel from the fine art world.
The market for exceptional prehistoric specimens continues to strengthen, driven by a combination of increasing scientific understanding, limited supply, and growing appetite among collectors and institutions seeking objects of genuine rarity and intellectual substance. “Jodi” sits squarely at the intersection of all three.
An Exhibition Not To Be Missed
Before the hammer falls on 27 October, the public will have the opportunity to encounter “Jodi” in person. The specimen will be installed and on public display at Sotheby’s galleries at the Breuer building in New York, with the exhibition opening on 13 October, offering a rare chance to stand in the presence of a creature once thought lost to misidentification, now finally recognised for what she always was.
In an era when the boundaries between science, culture, and luxury collecting continue to blur, “Jodi” is a powerful reminder that the rarest objects are not always fashioned by human hands. Some of the most extraordinary things on earth have simply been waiting, buried beneath the Montana soil, for the right moment to be found.
*Images: Sotheby’s
