Largest piece of Mars on Earth sells for $5.3 million at auction, but young dinosaur steals the show

The largest piece of Mars ever found on Earth was sold for just over $5 million at an auction of rare geological and archaeological objects in New York on Wednesday.

The largest piece of Mars ever found on Earth was sold for just over $5 million at an auction of rare geological and archaeological objects in New York on Wednesday. But a rare young dinosaur skeleton stole the show when it fetched more than $30 million in a bidding frenzy.

The 54-pound rock named NWA 16788 was discovered in the Sahara Desert in Niger by a meteorite hunter in November 2023, after having been blown off the surface of Mars by a massive asteroid strike and traveling 140 million miles to Earth, according to Sotheby's. The estimated sale price before the auction was $2 million to $4 million.

The identity of the buyer was not immediately disclosed. The final bid was $4.3 million. Adding various fees and costs, the official sale price was about $5.3 million. The live bidding was slow, with the auctioneer trying to coax more offers and decreasing the minimum bid increases.

A mounted juvenile Ceratosaurus skeleton, of the late Jurassic, Kimmeridgian stage, about 150 million years ago, at Sotheby's in New York on July 9.Richard Drew / AP fileThe dinosaur skeleton, on the other hand, sparked a bidding war. With a pre-auction estimate of $4 million to $6 million, it is one of only four known Ceratosaurus nasicornis skeletons and the only juvenile skeleton of the species, which resembles the Tyrannosaurus rex but is smaller.

Bidding for the skeleton started with a high advance offer of $6 million, then escalated during the live round with bids $500,000 higher than the last and later $1 million higher than the last before ending at $26 million. People applauded after the auctioneer gaveled the bidding closed.