Barry, a 150-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Goes Under the Hammer

Discovered in the early 2000s in Crook County, Wyoming, a Camptosaurus known as Barry, 80% of whose original bones are preserved, was first assembled in standing position. For over 20 years the skeleton belonged to a famous American neuroscientist and astrophysicist, who owned a collection it never left, before being taken apart, cleaned, and cataloged in 2022 by the Italian laboratory Zoic. Digital modeling and knowledge about paleontology acquired in recent years mean that Barry is no longer displayed like a mute skeleton but a living being in a horizontal position; this living force immediately whisks us back to the lush Jurassic forests covered by conifers, arborescent ferns and cycas. It is enough to capture the imagination of collectors, who are just beginning to discover the dinosaur market. While other little boys were playing with toy dinosaurs,…