A 37-Million-Year-Old 'Sabre-Toothed Tiger' Just Went Up For Auction

 A nearly 40-million-year-old skeleton belonging to what's popularly called a sabre-toothed tiger goes under the hammer next week in Geneva, a year after its discovery on a US ranch.

The skeleton, some 120 centimetres (nearly four feet) long, is anticipated to fetch between 60,000 and 80,000 Swiss francs (US$66,560 to $88,750; 55,300 to 73,750 euros) at auction on the holy day of obligation within the Swiss city.

"This fossil is outstanding, especially for its conservation: it's 37 million years old, and it's 90-per cent complete," Bernard Piguet, director of the Piguet firm, told AFP on Tuesday.

"The few missing bones were remade with a 3D printer," he added, with the skeleton reconstructed around a black metal frame.

Piguet said he was fascinated by the merger of "the extremely old with modern technologies".

The original bones are those of a Hoplophoneus. Not strictly a real member of the cat family, they're an extinct genus of the Nimravidae family and stalked around North America.

Such extinct predatory mammals are commonly called sabre-toothed tigers.

(Fabrice Coffrini/AFP)

"It was found in SD during the last excavation season, towards the tip of summer 2019," Swiss collector Yann Cuenin, who owns the handfuls of palaeontology lots on auction, told AFP.

"As in most finds, erosion had unearthed a part of the skeleton. While walking around his property, the ranch owner sawbones protruding of the bottom."

While the skeleton is that the star of the show, there are many other treasures from the past up for grabs, including ammolite, an opal-like organic gemstone, in reminder red and orange.

Measuring 40 cm long by 36 cm wide, the fossil from the Cretaceous period is 75 million years old and hails from the Canadian chain of mountains. it's estimated to fetch between 20,000 and 30,000 Swiss francs.

Jurassic Park enthusiasts may buy a theropod dinosaur tooth (2,200 to 2,800 francs), or, for 5,000 to 7,000 francs, a powerful 85-cm long fin from a mosasaur - a marine reptile that within the geological period was at the highest of the submarine organic phenomenon.

History versus art

Though dinosaur-mania began within us, it's grown in Europe in recent years. Next week's sale is that the second time such an auction has been held in Switzerland.

In September 2019, the skeleton of a dinosaur (Thescelosaurus neglectus), 66 million years old and three metres long, was purchased by a Swiss-resident collector for 225,000 francs.

Debate rages on the balance between the scientific value of such items and their worth on the open market.

Some palaeontologists insist animal or plant fossils don't seem to be decorative objects for collectors, but a witness to the evolution of life on Earth and thus scientific objects that should be studied so shared with the general public in museums.

(Fabrice Coffrini/AF

But Cuenin said: "If we're talking about the sabre-toothed tiger, as an example, it isn't a skeleton which is of major scientific interest, within the sense that it's something which is already known to science.

"We've found several dozen of them, individuals from the identical species. A fossil isn't just an easy scientific or technical object; it also has a creative value," he said.

Piguet added: "The museums are already well-stocked.

"I am all for museums, but I'm also in favour of objects living among us; for there to be collectors, for pieces to be bought and sold - that is what brings culture to life."