In the market for a dinosaur? Who isn't! Your chance is coming soon at Heritage Auctions

March 10, 2010

Posted by Noah

I think I've expressed in these blog pages on the Interwebs my sincere desire to acquire - and subsequently clone - a dinosaur, then go back in time and present it to my playground self back in the mid-1970s at elementary school.

While I was there I would warn myself against many things, the Ice Capades and Fruity Pebbles in particular, not to mention beets of all stripes, and tell myself to invest heavily in Microsoft. Then I would jet back to 1938, pick up a dozen or so Action #1s, then to 1939 for a dozen or so Detective #27s, then I would be back at home in time to catch the season finale of Psych tonight - I am ever a fan of the great Dule' Hill.

All of that is to say that, as you can see by the picture to the right, we had some big company at Heritage earlier this week and I couldn't resist taking a quick pic or two. With a few hundred thousand, maybe, or maybe a few million, I could at least fulfill the first part of my peurile ramblings above. That, mes amis, is a real, not-quite-live, Stegosaurus, 70%-80% intact, as it was assembled for photography for a Natural History auction to take place sometime next year.

And, oh yes, did I mention how much fun it is to work in a place where you walk into an auction room and see a full-size dinosaur? I didn't? Well, let me tell you...

Let's just say that the beast was hulking, huge and scary, and that's just judging by the size of its skeleton. You can see by the other picture just how big it was compared to a man - that man is our Natural History department's own Peter Wiggins, and if you know Peter, you know he's a good-sized (and good-natured) guy. I can only imagine having to run away from such a hulk of dino meat, and dodge that spiked tail, just like I'm sure poor Cha-ka the Pekuni, also known as the great character actor Phillip Paley, used to have to do on a daily basis in the jungles of The Land of The Lost. Don't even think of getting me started on the sleestaks... Creepy, man, Creepy...

The Stegosaurus above, unnamed as of yet - though I do like Chet - has no estimate attached to it, though I can't imagine I can walk away with it for less than a lot more than I have, or probably ever will have. So, listen, I'm open for partners in a deal to buy this thing. Once I have it, and once my Time Machine is done, there's at least one copy of both Action #1 and Detective #27 in it for you... I promise I'm good for it.

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-Noah Fleisher