Dinosaur sightings are ever so rare, but a giant Tyrannosaurus Rex (T-Rex) – or rather, all 79 bones (and additional casts) belonging to a T-Rex – will be on display at the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall, between Oct 28 to 30.
The bones were excavated in 2020 from a remote ranch in Montana, United States where the land is said to be fossil-rich.
The T-Rex also has a name – Shen, meaning god-like in Chinese – but whoever eventually has ownership of the dinosaur can rename it.
While it is free to view the 1,400kg Shen at the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall between Oct 28 to 30, visitors must first register in advance.
After the three-day public viewing, Shen will head to Hong Kong where it will headline auction house Christie’s 20th/21st Century Art Evening Sale. Its estimated value is said to be between S$21 million and S$36 million.
Although dinosaur fossils can be legally sold, not all paleontologists are happy about it.
In 1997, a T-Rex skeleton was bought with financial backing for a public establishment, the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and another T-Rex was auctioned off but will be homed in the upcoming Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi.
However, in July 2022, the only known Gorgosaurus skeleton was auctioned off to a private buyer who had no intention of donating it to a museum or a public organization.
Paleontologists believe that fossils should be studied for generations to come instead of being locked up in a billionaire’s basement.
Shen is also not the first dinosaur to be on display in Singapore. You can head to the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum to see three diplodocid sauropod fossils – that’s nerdspeak for long-necked, four-legged dinosaur for you.
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