A historic auction of T-rex bones has been withdrawn at the last minute after doubts were raised over its authenticity.
The 40-foot Tyrannosaurus rex named Shen was expected to bring in as much as $25million (£21million) in an offering by British auction house Christie's in Hong Kong on November 30.
But the individual who put the ancient dinosaur up for sale has now decided to lend it to a museum instead, reports the New York Times.
Christie's spokesman Edward Lewine told the newspaper: "The consignor has now decided to loan the specimen to a museum for public display"
They added that the company believes the dinosaur bones would "benefit from further study".
It comes after questions were asked about the authenticity of the skeleton, with a detailed examination by an expert recently finding 'Shen' was in fact formed of two different sets of dinosaur bones.
Peter Larson, president of the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research, told the New York Times that the bones also included replica parts from another dinosaur named 'Stan'.
Claiming he recognised the skull shape and holes in the jaw from the other dinosaur, he commented: "They’re using Stan to sell a dinosaur that’s not Stan.
"It’s very misleading."
After doubts were raised regarding the veracity of the the bones, an online listing for the dinosaur was allegedly altered to read: "Replica bones that were added to original bones (referred to as STAN elements) were created by, and purchased from, Black Hills Institute of Geological Research, Inc."
An entry in a Christie's catalogue also reportedly claimed that all of Shen's teeth were not original. The auction house also said 80 of Shen's bones originally belonged to the dinosaur, with T-rex skeletons typically containing 380 total bones.
It is exceedingly rare for dinosaur bones to be discovered in a complete set, although the practice of replacing missing parts with replicas can be controversial.
