Lindsay Hoadley of Summers Place Auctions tends to Misty.
A giant skeleton of a dinosaur that last roamed Earth more than 150 million years ago has fetched £400,000 at auction.
The 55ft (17m) specimen of the long-necked diplodocus longus went under the hammer at Summers Place Auctions in Billingshurst, West Sussex.
The sale of the female skeleton, 19ft (6m) tall and nicknamed Misty, was the first UK auction of a large dinosaur skeleton, according to experts.
It was found almost completely intact in 2009 by the sons of renowned palaeontologist Raimund Albersdoerfer near a quarry in Wyoming in the United States.
The skeleton was bought by an undisclosed institution and it will go on public display, auction officials said.
Rupert van der Werff, of Summers Place Auctions, said it is a “truly tremendous object”.
He said: “I’m absolutely thrilled. It has been an awful lot of work and a very exciting project and to finally get to this final conclusion, we are delighted.”
