Rare dinosaur ‘Barry’ up for sale at Paris auction

An almost complete dinosaur skeleton will be sold at auction in Paris next month.

The 150 million-year-old camptosaurus was discovered in the 1990s in the US state of Wyoming.

It was named Barry after Barry James, the palaeontologist who found it. Experts say the skeleton is “extremely well preserved”.

It is expected to fetch up to €1.2m ($1.2m, £970,000) in an auction at Hotel Drouot on 20 October.

Barry dates back to the late Jurassic period and measures 2.1m (6.9ft) tall and 5m long.

Alexandre Giquello, from the auction house Hotel Drouot, said it was unusual to see a dinosaur skeleton so intact.

“The skull is complete at 90% and the rest of the dinosaur is complete at 80%,” he said.

Sales of dinosaur fossils are rare, with only a small number taking place each year globally – although some experts have raised concerns about specimens finding their way into private hands.

In April, a Tyrannosaurus rex was sold at auction for the first time in Europe.

Speaking to the BBC at the time, Prof Steve Brusatte, a dinosaur expert at Edinburgh University, said he was concerned the skeletons, which were “scientifically very valuable” could “disappear into the vaults of private collectors”.