A dinosaur of an unknown species

A dinosaur of an unknown species exposed in Lyon

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The former hall of the Brotteaux station is the only place capable of accommodating the XXL skeleton before it was put up for sale in June at the Eiffel Tower.


After 24 hours of a clever editing that seems to bring it back to life, he is exposed to the public for two and a half months. With its 9 m long, 2.6 m high, and its great age (between 157 and 152 million years), this fossil dinosaur skeleton is presented as unique. It does not correspond to any known dinosaur species today.
“It can be said to be a carnivorous theropod dinosaur, but its teeth, skull, pubis and many other anatomical details distinguish it from the Allosaurus. It is unlike any other,” explains Eric Mickeler, the expert who has been following it since its discovery in 2013 in the Morrison Formation, a true paleontological deposit in Wyoming, USA. After two years of excavation and two years of restoration, the theropod spent three months in Nicolas Tourment’s workshops in Marseille to be assembled on a custom-made articulated metal structure. “The challenge is to combine science and aesthetics,” says the fossil preparation specialist, “Who could buy such an object? “The potential customers are only a few dozen in the world,” says auctioneer Claude Aguttes, who has already made two sales of the same type since 2016, “they are museums or foundations, private collectors and companies.
The buyer must in any case submit it to the scientists to try to specify its species. However, its examination has already made it possible to trace a little of its history. “He was an adult,” says Nicolas Tourment, “and he had fractures to his phalanges of his feet that were reossified. The same observations were made on his tail and ergot.