Duelling sabre-toothed cat skeletons make $110,000 at IM Chait

A pair of duelling sabre-toothed cat skeletons made $110,000 in IM Chait's natural history auction, which took place in Beverly Hills on July 26.

They were discovered separately in the badlands of South Dakota during the 1990s and were later articulated and arranged into a fighting pose.

Dinictis Felina, or false sabre-toothed cats, first appear on the fossil record around 37.2m years ago and died out 16.2m years later.

duelling sabre cats
The skeletons are Dinictis Felina - also known as the false sabre-toothed cat

Jake Chait, who leads IM Chait's natural history department, commented prior to the sale: "No comparable display specimens of the same quality and originality exist in either private or museum collections."

In 2011, the skull of a Machairodus Giganteus (or true sabre-toothed cat) sold for $116,500 at Bonhams New York.

A Pterosaur skeleton also proved popular with bidders and topped out at $75,000.

It was discovered in the phosphate beds of Morocco, a major paleontological site, and is between 66m and 228m years old.

The Pterosaur was the first vertebrate ever to take to the skies.

The fall in oxygen in the atmosphere towards the end of the Cretaceous period is thought to have been a factor in its extinction, as it would have been unable to fly.

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