There is a lot of weird stuff on eBay.

You can’t find a living baby T-Rex online though, so sorry if the headline got you amped.

You can get your hands on a fossil of a baby T-Rex.

The 68-million-years old fossil was listed by professional fossil hunter Alan Detrich, along with a “buy it now” asking price of almost $3 million.

Here’s CNBC with more:

The listing, last updated on Tuesday, claims the artefact is “most likely the only baby T-rex in the world,” adding that the specimen has a 15-foot-long body, 21-inch skull and serrated teeth.

“This Rex was a very dangerous meat eater. It’s a RARE opportunity indeed to ever see a baby REX,” it says. “Histology shows the specimen to be approximately 4 years old upon death.

Reconstruction of the skull has been done by Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology (from Natural History Museum in FL).”

Until recently the fossil was on loan to the University of Kansas Natural History Museum. Detrich discovered the fossil in 2013.

Meanwhile, the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) published an open letter voicing “ethical concerns” that “the fossil, which represents a unique part of life’s past, may be lost from the public trust.”

“Its owner used the specimen’s scientific importance, including its exhibition status at KU, as part of his advertising strategy. Only casts and other replicas of vertebrate fossils should be traded, not the fossils themselves,” the SVP said.

They have a point. This type of fossil should be public property, in a museum.

If you’re wondering what a baby T-Rex would have looked like when it was alive, here’s what scientists imagined based on evidence they’ve uncovered from fossils:

It’s ridiculously cute.

At the time of writing the fossil is still on eBay.

[source:cnbc]