World's largest triceratops skeleton sells for £6.5m at Paris auction house

A 23-foot-long fossilised skeleton of a majestic triceratops has fetched an incredible $7.7mn (£5.5mn) in an auction in Paris.

The dinosaur, named “Big John” after the owner of the land where the bones were found, was sold by the Hôtel Drouot auction house on Thursday.

Big John will now be coming back home, as the dinosaur was unearthed in modern-day US and was sold to an unnamed buyer from the country.

The sale price surpassed expectations as the auction house had estimated Big John would fetch them between $1.4mn (£1mn) and $1.7mn (£1.3mn).

Sign up to our free newsletters by clicking here.