Biggest dino skeleton ever to go on sale

Vulcain is 25 metres long - that's as long as a swimming pool!

If you want to get your hands on a huge dinosaur skeleton, you'll soon have your chance.

The largest dino skeleton to ever go up for auction, an apatosaurus nicknamed Vulcain, will be put on sale in France on 16 November.

Its being jointly sold by two French auction houses: Collin du Bocage and Barbarossa.

But it'll cost you! Originally estimated to sell for between €3 million and €5 million (£2.5 million to £4.2 million), the price has already increased to €15 million (£12.5 million).

It wouldn't be the most expensive dinosaur skeleton sale though - that honour goes to Apex, the stegosaurus, auctioned for £34 million earlier this year.

Vulcain is a whopping 25 metres long, and 80% of its huge skeleton is made from the original bones, which are 145 million years old.

The skeleton was discovered in 2018, in the US state of Wyoming, after a three year-long dig.

Vulcain can be visited by the public at the Dampierre-en-Yvelines castle, just outside Paris.

The head is one of the most complete ever found

While one lucky person will be able to call Vulcain their own after the sale, the auction houses said that researchers will still want to examine it.

Auctioneer Olivier Collin Du Bocage explained: "You must not forget that the dinosaur is a scientific piece. It is part of humanity and the story of the Earth.

"So even if you are the owner of this one, the scientists will keep an access to this piece and to learn about dinosaur."

Scientists will continue to study Vulcain

All about Apatosauruses

Vulcain is an apatosaurus, a long-necked herbivore that lived in what is now North America millions of years ago.

Herbivores are animals that only eat plants.

They're in the same family as other dinosaurs like the diplodocus and stegosaurus.

An illustration of what an apatosaurus may have looked like 150 million years ago

Aptosauruses were generally quite gentle, even though they were very skilled fighters - or as du Bocage called them: “the kindest and biggest dinosaurs" of the Jurassic Period.

The name apatosaurus comes from Greek words meaning 'deceptive lizard'.

And its nickname Vulcain is a reference to Vulcan, the Roman God of fire, including - as the name suggests - the fire of volcanoes.