In One Ear: Savage creature

Published 6:00 am Thursday, July 24, 2025

In honor of the umpteenth resurgence of “Jurassic Park,” a tidbit about a real dinosaur. A juvenile ceratosaurus nasicornis skeleton, 6 feet 3 inches high and 10 feet 8 inches long, dating from between 149 and 154 million years ago (late Jurassic Period), was up for auction at Sotheby’s. The rare specimen was expected to fetch from $4 to $6 million on July 16.

According to All That’s Interesting, the winning bid was for an astounding $30.5 million. Perhaps because the skeleton, as a juvenile, is the only one of its kind, and now it’s the third-most expensive fossil to be auctioned. The buyer’s name is not known.

Extinct Animals describes the adult ceratosaurus, which was about 26 feet long, as a “savage, carnivorous creature.” They had nasal horns, unusually large teeth and hunted in packs. Fish and crocodiles were their primary prey, so of course, they could swim. All in all, a most unpleasant critter.

Did you know Oregon was under water during the Jurassic Period? “… We can say with relative certainty,” University of Oregon geology professor Greg Retallack noted, “that the presence of dinosaurs in Oregon is not the serendipity we had once thought.” (Photo: Matthew Sherman/Sotheby’s)