T. rex’s smaller cousin ‘Jodi,’ a 67-million-year-old dinosaur, heads to auction

A dinosaur once mistaken for a young T. rex is stepping into the spotlight at Sotheby’s New York, where its skeleton is expected to fetch $6 million to $9 million.

Known as “Jodi,” the roughly 67-million-year-old Nanotyrannus went on public display on Tuesday (October 13) ahead of its auction on October 27.

“This is a huge deal in paleontology,” Cassandra Hatton, Sotheby’s vice chairman and worldwide head of science and natural history, said at a press preview.

According to Sotheby’s, research published last fall established Nanotyrannus as a distinct genus, following decades of debate over whether these smaller predators were juvenile T. rex dinosaurs.

Jodi was exhibited under the name “Chomper” at London’s Frieze Masters in 2023, when it was presented as a juvenile T. rex, the auction house said.

“So it took 84 years to figure out what this dinosaur really was,” Hatton said, referring to the time since the discovery of the first skull.

Nanotyrannus lived alongside T. rex but occupied a different ecological niche, Hatton said, comparing their roles to those of a lion and a cheetah.

“This was much swifter,” she said. “It was an animal that would have ripped flesh off the bones of other dinosaurs.”

Hatton contrasted that feeding style with T. rex’s powerful jaws, which she said enabled it to consume its prey whole.

“They ate the bone, they ate everything,” she said.

Both dinosaurs belonged to the tyrannosaurid family. Hatton pointed to Nanotyrannus’s longer arms, larger hand claws and lankier legs among the anatomical differences that distinguished it from its larger relative.

Jodi, an adult specimen, measures nearly 20 feet long and about 6.5 feet tall, with approximately 191 fossil bone elements, according to Sotheby’s. Its preserved anatomy includes a complete wishbone and all four hand claws.

Its virtually complete skull contains 53 bones. Hatton said about 90% of the skull’s mass is preserved, providing important features for identifying the dinosaur and comparing it with other specimens.

“Many of the morphological, diagnostic details are found in the skull,” she said.

Rancher Jodi Pierson discovered the fossil on her Montana property near Jordan in 2019, about eight miles from the “Dueling Dinosaurs” dig site. A team including her cousin Clayton Phipps, known as the “Dinosaur Cowboy,” excavated it that year.

Sotheby’s describes Jodi as one of only three known Nanotyrannus skeletons and the second most complete. The most complete, “Bloody Mary,” forms part of the “Dueling Dinosaurs” specimen housed at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. Another skeleton, “Jane,” is about half complete, according to the auction house.

Jodi is mounted on a custom support, with missing portions restored using 3D-printed and sculpted elements.

The sale includes rights to reproduce the specimen, allowing the buyer to make and sell casts and replicas, Hatton said.

Camera, Production, Editing, Writing: Roselle Chen/Reuters