A rare skeleton of a Nanotyrannus, a smaller relative of the Tyrannosaurus rex, sold at auction in New York this week for $47.3m, making it one of the world’s most expensive fossils.

The skeleton, named “Jodi” after the person who found the remains in 2019, sold at Sotheby’s on Tuesday for $47.3m, “after a twelve-minute bidding battle that saw six bidders compete online and over the phones, before ultimately selling on the phone”, Sotheby’s said in a statement.

Sotheby’s initially estimated that the skeleton would sell for $6m to $9m. Tuesday’s result makes “Jodi” the “second most valuable dinosaur ever sold at auction”, Sotheby’s noted. The buyer has not yet been identified publicly.

The skeleton, which was unveiled at a Manhattan auction earlier this month, was discovered by Jodi Pierson in 2019 on her privately owned land in the Hell Creek Formation in Garfield County, Montana, near the town of Jordan.…