Spike the dinosaur skeleton is going up for sale

A dinosaur skeleton that is 68 million years old is going up for sale next month.

To buy it is expected to cost between £3 and £5 million!

The Caenagnathid skeleton is from the Cretaceous period, found in North America and Asia, and is thought to have had feathers.

The specimen, which has been nicknamed Spike, is made up of approximately 100 different fossil bones.

The skeleton was discovered in 2022, in South Dakota, in America.

It dates from between 68 and 66 million years ago and measures around two metres in height.

Since the first Caenagnathid was described in 1940, Christie's says only a handful of comparable specimens have been discovered – and none have been sold at auction - until now.

The sale of dinosaur fossils through auction for huge sums of money has come under some criticism from some palaeontologists (dinosaur experts) who say the cost stops many public museums from being able to afford them.

But others argue that many private fossil collectors share their dinosaurs with museums with many on public display.