AR / ITEM / 00100421
'Stan' Tyrannosaurus rex
Maker unknown
The Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton found in South Dakota in 1987, sold at Christie's in 2020 for $31.8 million and now at the Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi.
- Date
- Late Cretaceous; found 1987
- Collection
- Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism
- Reference
- NHMAD 2020.00001 (formerly BHI 3033)
Plate not recorded
No photograph with documented reuse rights is held for this record.
Provenance and history
The amateur palaeontologist Stan Sacrison spotted the pelvis in a cliff near Buffalo, South Dakota, in 1987 while working freelance for the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research. The Institute excavated the skeleton from 11 July 1992 under Peter Larson and prepared it in its laboratory; casts were sold to museums around the world. In October 2020 it sold at Christie's for $31.8 million, then the most paid for a dinosaur fossil. The Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism acquired it, and it went on display when the Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi opened on 22 November 2025.
In the Tapestry
- Discovered at · 1987
- Hell Creek FormationAmedium confidence
- Owned by · 1992–2020
- Black Hills Institute of Geological ResearchAmedium confidence
- Associated with · 2020
- Christie'sAmedium confidence
- Exhibited at · from 2025
- Natural History Museum Abu DhabiAmedium confidence
Record
- Medium
- Fossil bone
- Origin
- South Dakota, United States
Sources
- A
Wikipedia, 'Stan (dinosaur)'
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