• Skull is 76 million years old and has been called Maximums.
• The skull weighs more than 91 kilogrammes and is two metres long.
• Skull is expected to sell for between £13 million and £17 million at Sotheby’s auction.

At an auction next month, a mysterious donor will sell the most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skull for an estimated £17 million.

Sotheby’s has said that the skull, which is 76 million years old and has been called Maximums, will be sold at a live auction on December 9 in New York.

The skull weighs more than 91 kilogrammes and is two metres long. It is comparable to those in museums and is expected to sell for between $15 million and $20 million (£13 million and £17 million).

It was unearthed in Harding County, South Dakota, where Sue and Stan’s skeletons were also found.

Sue was the first dinosaur sold at auction, for $8.3m (£7.25m) in 1997. Stan sold for $31.8 million (£27.75 million) in 2020.

Most of Maximus’s bones were broken up by erosion, but Henry Galiano, a palaeontologist who works as a consultant for an auction house, says that “this T rex fossil is an extraordinary discovery.”

He said, “Unearthed in one of the most concentrated areas for T-Rex remains, the skull retained much of its original shape and surface characteristics, with even the smallest and most delicate bones intact, with an extremely high degree of scientific integrity.”

“Without the work of experienced field palaeontologists, who carefully collected and preserved this skull, it may have eroded away and been lost to science forever.”

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