Christie's announced on Friday that it will be selling a Deinonychus skeleton known as Hector, which was discovered in Montana some years ago. According to the firm, this would be the first public sale of such a specimen. The anticipated price range is $4 million to $6 million.

Many people associate the Deinonychus with the nimble bipedal dinosaurs with deadly claws and scrunched-up arms shown in "Jurassic Park" pursuing youngsters through a kitchen.

They were dubbed velociraptors in the 1993 film, by Michael Crichton, although they were more like a different, related species, Deinonychus antirrhopus.

The film contributed to velociraptors (officially Deinonychuses) becoming one of the most recognizable dinosaurs, alongside the T. rex. Dinosaur fans may now place a bid on their own.

In an interview, James Hyslop, the head of science and natural history at Christie’s stated that “It’s the dinosaur that everybody wants to see,” recalling that "As memorable as that moment is with the water glass shaking from the T. rex, the bit that really scares us is the bit with the raptors hunting those kids.”

Paleontologists have conflicting feelings about the practice of auctioning off dinosaur bones; some are vehemently opposed to it because it allows specimens to slip into the hands of someone who has no interest in scientific or public access but has the money to outbid a museum. 

Steve Brusatte, a professor of paleontology and evolution at the University of Edinburgh says it would be a "huge shame for science, and for the public if this disappeared into the basement of an oligarch."

A T. rex skeleton called Stan fetched a record $31.8 million in 2020, nearly quadrupling its high estimate of $8 million. 

The auction company is following in Crichton's footsteps by calling this lot "the raptor" and naming it Hector, both of which are easier to say than Deinonychus. According to the sales catalog, the specimen, which dates back roughly 110 million years to the Early Cretaceous period, was excavated by a commercial paleontologist, Jared Hudson, on private land at Wolf Canyon in Montana about nine years ago and was later acquired by its current owner, who is anonymous. There are 126 genuine bones in the skeleton, while the rest are recreated.

The fake bones are cast or 3-D printed, making the creature more of a work of art than just a fossil. The majority of the skull has been recreated, which Christie's claims is usual with dinosaurs.

The first fossils of the species were found in 1964 by naturalist John H. Ostrom, who named it Deinonychus, which means "terrible claw," after the sharply curved instrument that the dinosaur, he hypothesized, used to slice its food. Ostrom's discovery — that certain dinosaurs were less reptile and more birdlike: fast-moving and likely warm-blooded and feathered — was crucial to how scientists view dinosaurs today.

When the dinosaur is auctioned off on May 12, Hyslop hopes it will go to someone who would share it with the public, saying that “that little boy inside of me wants to see it again and again.”