Rare Dinosaur Skeleton Fails to Sell at Auction

NEW YORK – Hey, dino buffs, interested in owning a real dinosaur?

If so, you still have a chance to save up your pennies for a 150-million-year-old complete skeleton of a dryosaurus, a 9-foot-long dinosaur from the Jurassic era.

The I.M. Chait Gallery had put the skeleton up for auction Saturday in New York City, billing it as one of only two of its kind in the world and estimating it would bring in $440,000 to $500,000.

The fossil was taken from private land in Wyoming in 1993 and is being sold by Utah-based Western Paleontological Laboratories, according to the Chait Gallery.

But by the end of the auction, though a couple museums had expressed interest, no one stepped up to buy the dryosaurus, gallery owner John Chait told foxnews.1eye.us.

The dryosaurus was a mysterious beast, according to the item description from the auction.

"The comparatively large size of the eye sockets suggests keen eyesight, but even from remains unearthed in the western United States and in Tanzania since the late nineteenth century, there is still not a great deal else known about the animal's biology and habits," the description reads. "Some evidence suggests they were herd animals, being able to migrate long distances."

Even though the skeleton didn't sell at auction, Chait said owner still might be able to sell it soon on the open market.

The auction Saturday also included the 7-foot-tall complete skeleton of a 20,000-year-old, juvenile wooly mammoth, which sold for $55,000, and the fossilized skeleton of 20-foot-long marine lizard, which sold for $67,000.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.