• A 66-million-year-old Triceratops named Trey sold at Joopiter for $5.55 million.
• The fossil spent three decades on continuous display at a museum.
• The sale reflects booming dinosaur demand while renewing ethical debates over private ownership.

Yet another prehistoric creature has stunned on the auction block. A 66-million-year-old specimen has just realized $5.55 million at Joopiter, marking the online auction platform’s first-ever fossil offering.

Nicknamed Trey, the Triceratops skeleton sold within estimate, becoming the priciest fossil specimen to sell in an online-only auction, according to Joopiter. The artifact spent some three decades on continuous loan and public exhibition at a museum, while playing a role in advancing scientific study, said Andre Lujan, a paleontologist and the CEO of the Texas-based commercial paleontology firm PaleoTex, who consulted on the sale.

“Paleontology is built on specimens as data points,” he explained over email. “Trey is one among many of these that help us better understand this extinct group of horned dinosaurs.”

Beak detail of Trey the Triceratops. Courtesy of Joopiter.

Trey was excavated in 1993 near Lusk in Wyoming by renowned paleontologist Allen Graffham and his partner Lee Campbell. The Late Cretaceous remains were found at the Lance Formation, a site that has yielded the bones of Tyrannosaurus Rex, Edmontosaurus, and most abundantly, Triceratops.

After emerging from the ground, the fossil entered into a private collection. It was sent to Germany for restoration and mounting, before arriving at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in 1995, where it would be on display for 30 years. Trey is the only dinosaur skeleton acquired through Graffham to come to market in the past two decades.

“What makes Trey truly unique is that it stands out as a cultural data point: an undeniable part of the rich history of commercial paleontology in the U.S., and an ambassador of the legacy of citizen scientists who help build the scientific body of knowledge,” Lujan said.

Trey the Triceratops. Courtesy of Joopiter.

Next-Gen Collector Focus

This was the first dinosaur skeleton that Joopiter is ushering to auction. The platform, founded by musician and record producer Pharrell Williams, is better known for its offerings of archival fashion and contemporary art linked to major names from Kim Jones to Maripol. The company’s debut on the fossil scene falls in line with its bid to reshape what collecting means for a new generation, Joopiter’s head of sale Caitlin Donovan said.

“To look at this Triceratops, which has inspired wonder in museum visitors for over 30 years, is to understand a cultural artifact of the utmost significance,” she said over email. “At Joopiter, our mission is to continue expanding the canon of collectability into new, unexpected, and extraordinary territory. Trey is the perfect embodiment of this.”

Shoulder detail of Trey the Triceratops. Courtesy of Joopiter.

The dinosaur space that has seen sustained collector interest recently. Last year saw Sotheby’s offload a juvenile Ceratosaurus fossil for $30.5 million and Phillips selling a young Triceratops skeleton in its first dinosaur auction for $5.4 million. At Heritage Auctions, a dire wolf skull went for $52,500, almost twice its estimate.

These sales have long sparked ethical concerns about dinosaur specimens disappearing into private hands—a tension that may be nudging some collectors toward opening their prehistoric purchases to public access.

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his wife Wendy, for instance, donated a Pachycephalosaurus skull, which they snapped up for $1.7 million at Sotheby’s, to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History last December. This is on the heels of Apex, the $44 million Stegosaurus skeleton acquired by Ken Griffin, going on view at New York’s American Museum of Natural History as part of a long-term loan.

This story was originally published on March 2, 2026. It was updated on March 31, 2026, 3.10 p.m. ET, with the auction results.