Zurich has a new temporary star: it is 11 meters long and 66 million years old

It’s the only catchphrase that actually works (word of honor!):

If the answer “T-Rex!” the location for the next date is fixed – at least if the date is before mid-April. And then it’s off to the foyer of the Tonhalle in Zurich, because there you can admire TRX-293 Trinity from March 29 to April 16 on selected dates. The first T-Rex to touch Swiss soil. We visited him.

The fossil, as it is presented today, consists of 293 individual bones, the fragments of which come from a total of three dinosaurs. All three walked the Earth about 67 million years ago – ie during the Upper Cretaceous. The original bone parts make up 50 percent of the skeleton. That in itself is spectacular, said Cyrill Koller of auction house Koller during a press conference. The bone fragments were then supplemented with a mass of polyester and epoxy resins to complete the skeleton. The template for the reconstructions were silicone casts of other known T-Rex specimens, as the “bone maker” Arth Walen explains.

The auction house emphasizes that the attitude in which the fossil is presented is “scientifically accurate”.

At Trinity, the skull is especially impressive. The fossil preparer Nils Knoetschke says:

In fact, most dinosaurs would be found without a skull, but Trinity has original Tyrannosaurus skull bones that all came from the same specimen. Moreover, the preparation of the wafer-thin skull bones in the skull was particularly successful and the spines of vertebrae and even nerve entrances are still recognizable on the bones, Knötschke explains enthusiastically. And such filigree bone parts are almost never kept.

During the press conference, probably Switzerland’s most famous dinosaur man, Hans-Jakob Siber, director of the Aathal Dinosaur Museum, speaks in awe of having worked with dinosaurs for over 40 years, “but I would never have dreamed of such a thing”.

Christian D. Link, who used to be a magician and today deals in objects of pop and cultural history such as Trinity, speaks of “our lady”. This is because at least one of the three skeletons — namely the one where the pelvis and tail bone fragments come from — likely came from a woman, Knötschke explains. And it’s the scientific consensus that the females were “just more robust” than the male T-Rex. Maybe because they guarded the claws. And Trinity is such a “huge” specimen.

The T-Rex is one of the largest predators to ever walk the Earth. And Trinity also has impressive proportions. The fossil is 11.6 meters long and 3.9 meters high. In addition, the T-Rex was one of the last dinosaur species to exist at the time of the dinosaurs’ extinction.

Dinosaur fossils are extremely rare because fossils only form when conditions are right over thousands to millions of years. Only the skeletons of 32 adult T-Rex specimens are known worldwide. That’s not much when you consider that the T-Rex lived for 2 million years.

To form a fossil like Trinity, the dead animals must first be covered with a sediment such as mud or sand. The environment around the bones – particularly the minerals in the groundwater and sediment – then influences the formation of the fossil as the bone’s original minerals are gradually replaced. In the vernacular, one then speaks of a petrification.

The fossils of the three Trinity dinosaurs were excavated between 2008 and 2013 in the United States – in the Hell Creek Formation in Montana and the Lance Formation in Wyoming. This site is notorious among dinosaur experts because the remarkably complete fossils of Sue and Stan also come from there.

That Trinity is so magnificent today is only possible thanks to the initiative of a “passionate individual”. Because they bought two of the three skeletons combined into Trinity, then commissioned another excavation to get a third T-Rex specimen out of the ground, Koller explains. He emphasizes that the provenance and excavations of all three skeletons are known.

The T-Rex Stan was auctioned for $31.8 million in 2020, catapulting dinosaur fossil prices to new heights, according to auction house Koller. And now it’s Trinity’s turn – for the first time the auction will take place in Europe.

The dinosaur then came to Zurich via detours. Both Link, who trades in strange things, and the dinosaur man Siber became aware of the skeleton, which was standing in an exhibition hall waiting for a buyer – until it was finally offered to an auction house in Zurich about 5 months ago. Now it is not in the Aathal Dinosaur Museum until it is sold, but in the Tonhalle, but Siber says: “I am very happy to welcome the T-Rex to my hometown.”

Trinity will be auctioned on April 18 by auction house Koller as part of the “Out of this World” auction. Until then, the Tonhalle expects up to 30,000 visitors and 19 Dino-related events are planned, said Tonhalle director Ilona Schmiel. It is estimated that Trinity will change hands for 5 to 8 million Swiss francs.

It would be desirable for the skeleton to be purchased by a museum or by a wealthy private individual who then lends Trinity to a museum. Because Trinity is scientifically untouched. And there is so much to investigate – just asking how old the three dinosaurs were, or searching for the causes of death, will probably keep some paleontologists busy for several years.