Zéphyr, which is more than 3 meters long and 1.30 meters high, will be sold on October 20 by the cabinet Alexandre Giquello and associates, an art and antiques trading company.
The peculiarity of this dinosaur is that his skeleton was almost completely unearthed, with 70% of the original bones recovered. Also its state of conservation.
“During the preparations, tendons were found from part of the bones of the spine. This is something that almost never fossilizes,” natural history expert Iacopo Briano told EFE. The paleontologist considered the presence of these tendons something “almost unheard of” in dinosaur fossils.
Zéphyr was discovered in Colorado, United States, in 2019 after millions of years hidden under the sediments of a river. The cause of his death is unknown but it is believed that it could have been due to a natural catastrophe that buried the remains, or to illness.
“When we have such a complete specimen, it is usually due to a sudden event, something catastrophic, like a flood,” said the scientist.
This specimen of Camptosaurus was herbivorous and could move quickly and agilely on two or four legs. It could reach a speed of up to 25 kilometers per hour.
Zéphyr has large eye sockets with small slits above them, which probably served to protect its eyes from the sun, so experts assume that it was active during the day. These types of adaptations can be observed in some species of birds that live today.
The Iguanodon is the second type of dinosaur that was described by paleontologists in 1879after William Harlow Reed discovered remains of Camptosaurus as Zéphyr, in Wyoming, United States.
The specimen that will be sold in Paris has been restored by the Italian company Zoic, the world’s leading company specializing in paleontology.