The nearly complete fossilised remains of a stegosaurus have fetched $US44.6 million ($A66.3 million) at auction in New York.
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The fossil, dubbed "Apex", is considered to be among the most complete ever found, according to Sotheby's auction house.
The price blew past a pre-sale estimate of $US4-6 million ($A5.9-8.9 million) and past a prior auction record for dinosaur fossils — $US31.8 million ($A47.2 million) for the remains of a Tyrannosaurus rex nicknamed Stan, sold in 2020.
Apex "has now taken its place in history, some 150 million years since it roamed the planet", said Cassandra Hatton, who heads Sotheby's science-related business.
Dinosaur fossil sales stir some frustration among academic paleontologists who feel the specimens belong in museums or research centres that can't afford huge auction prices.
Sotheby's said the anonymous buyer is American and intends to look into loaning Apex to an institution in the US. The purchaser beat out six other bidders.
The stegosaurus was one of the world's most distinctive dinosaurs, featuring pointy plates on its back. Hatton has called Apex "a colouring-book dinosaur" for its well-preserved features.
At more than 3m tall and longer than 8m nose to tail, Apex was a big stegosaurus that lived long enough to show signs of arthritis, Sotheby's said.
A commercial paleontologist named Jason Cooper discovered the fossil in 2022 on his property near the town of Dinosaur, Colorado. The tiny community is near Dinosaur National Monument and the Utah border.
Australian Associated Press
