Education and Skills

Mexico is auctioning a dinosaur tail to raise money for schools

A worker holds an original tooth of a dinosaur next to a reconstructed skull of Torvosaurus at Lourinha museum, near Lisbon August 2, 2008. Portuguese paleontologists presented a reconstructed skull of Torvosaurus, a giant prehistoric dinosaur they say is the largest known terrestrial predator of the Jurassic Period. Reconstructed from parts of a cranium, including a jaw bone with a 5.1 inch (13 cm) long blade-like tooth, found in 2003 near Lourinha in central-western Portugal, the skull measures 4.6 feet (1.4 metres) in length -- bigger than an earlier Torvosaurus find made in the United States in the 1970s. The species roamed the earth about 150 million year ago, according to the New University of Lisbon. REUTERS/Nacho Doce (PORTUGAL) - GM1E48301Q201

A dinosaur tail from a museum in Mexico is being auctioned in order to raise funds for schools in Latin America. Image: REUTERS/Nacho Doce

Diego Oré

A fossilized dinosaur tail discovered in Morocco will be auctioned on Tuesday night in Mexico to raise funds for the reconstruction of thousands of schools damaged by two earthquakes that struck the Latin American nation in September.

The 4-metre-(13-foot)-long, 180-kg (396-pound) tail will be offered at a reserve price of 1.8 million Mexican pesos ($95,805), according to organizer Morton’s Auction House. Anything raised above the reserve price will be donated to the BBVA Bancomer Foundation to help finance the reconstruction of some 5,000 damaged schools.

The extremity belonged to a 17-metre (56-foot), 22-tonne sauropod of the Atlasaurus imelakei species that roamed the Atlas Mountains of Morocco during the Middle Jurassic, some 165 million years ago.

Image: REUTERS/Daniel Becerril

The group of dinosaurs called sauropods were massive four-legged plant-eaters with long necks and long tails, and included the largest land animals ever on Earth.

The two September quakes in Mexico killed an estimated 480 people and caused billions of dollars worth in damage.

“Education is an element of enormous importance for the country, an element of social mobility, that is why we support the reconstruction of schools,” Adolfo Albo, from BBVA Bancomer Foundation, told Reuters.

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Albo said the foundation hoped the tail would sell for a lot more than the reserve price.

Moroccan paleontologists took 300 hours to clean the gigantic remains of the reptile, before scientists in Utah pieced them back together.

A Mexican businessman, who asked not to be named because he did not want publicity, purchased the fossil for his collection.

($1 = 18.7880 Mexican pesos)

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