Yours for US$1.8m or more: 'world's biggest dinosaur' skull on sale in Hong Kong
Fossil of a triceratops, dubbed the Dragon King and discovered in 1992, is on sale for the collector who doesn't quite have everything - yet
You've got the sports car, the luxury flat, the wine collection - what's left for the megarich Hongkonger who truly wants to stand a head above the rest? How about … a massive dinosaur's head?
Up for sale in the city is a 65-million-year-old triceratops skull dubbed - with more than a hint of pageantry - Lung Wong, or the Dragon King.
But experts have cast doubt on claims by the company marketing the 600kg skull - yours for a price somewhere above US$1.8 million - that it is the "largest, most complete dinosaur skull ever discovered". And there is concern, too, about the loss to the scientific community of placing such a specimen in a private collection.
"The Dragon King is, quite simply, the most breathtaking, powerful, and aesthetically magnificent fossil I have ever seen in my nearly three decades of experience in natural history," said Brian Lerner, director of Evolved, the local company handling the sale. "He is the absolute jewel in the crown."
The massive fossil was discovered in 1992, when elderly rancher Ray Novakovich spotted the beast's horns jutting from a rock while inspecting his property in the US state of Montana.
Novakovich notified the authorities, but - due to the difficulty and cost of excavating the skull - the specimen was left untouched until it was bought and unearthed by a team of privately financed fossil hunters in 2003.