Image: Yuki IwamuraAP
It was unearthed in 2019 by a Montana rancher, and scientists have since confirmed it belongs to a different predator altogether, the Nanotyrannus. In October 2025, new research concluded otherwise. Cassandra Hatton, head of science and natural history at Sotheby’s, told The Associated Press that, until the genus was proved, Tyrannosaurus rex was assumed to be the only apex predator of the Cretaceous period, some 67 million years ago.
“We now know that they coexisted,” she said, each occupying its own niche in the ecosystem. “We absolutely need private diggers who invest their own money,” she told the agency, pointing out that there are not enough universities and museums running field programmes. Stuart Sumida, the society’s president and a biology professor at California State University San Bernardino, rejected that argument as a “blatant lie”. He told The Associated Press that no peer-reviewed study can be published on specimens that are not held in the public trust, once such a fossil is in private hands, he said, it can never be studied, and generations will never see it again.
A skeleton that looks like a small Tyrannosaurus rex is now standing in a Manhattan lobby, waiting for bidders. That confirmation ended a debate that had lasted for decades, and it has turned an unusual find into a headline lot. Its sale touches on a wider question, who should be able to dig up dinosaurs? Learn how it was found, how it differs from its famous cousin, and why scientists disagree about selling it. It is housed at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. For decades, researchers wondered whether such fossils belonged to young Tyrannosaurus rex. Scientists examining growth rings inside preserved bones found fully formed adults, not juveniles, which established Nanotyrannus as a distinct genus. The Society of Vertebrate Palaeontology, an advocacy group of scientists, scholars and students, wants significant fossils like Jodi displayed in museums and other research institutions rather than sold privately. Hatton counters that the world might never have learned of Nanotyrannus without professional dinosaur hunters.
How Montana rancher Jodi Pierson discovered the Nanotyrannus skeleton on her land near a famous earlier find
The location is notable; the fossil lay some 8 miles (13 kilometres) from the site where the so-called Dueling Dinosaurs fossil was unearthed in 2006. The argument dates back to 1942, when what is now considered the first Nanotyrannus head, known as the Cleveland Skull, was discovered. That earlier find depicts a Nanotyrannus and a Triceratops together, which means one small stretch of Montana has produced two of the very few known skeletons of this predator.
Its discovery and excavation were the focus of the Discovery Channel documentary series “Dino Hunters” in 2020. The skeleton is nicknamed Jodi after Jodi Pierson, the rancher who found it on her land.