A STEGOSAURUS dubbed Apex has broken the record price for a dinosaur fossil, selling at Sotheby’s in New York on Wednesday for $44.6 million (£34.2m).

The 11-foot-tall, 27-foot-long Jurassic herbivore, famed for its row of armoured plates and spiked tail, was bought by hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin of Citadel LLC.

The sale beats the previous record $31.8m (£24.4m) paid for a Tyrannosaurus rex called Stan in 2020, and revives concerns at the auction-house trade in fossils, which can see museums and universities lose access to scientific treasures as they are outbid by egotistical plutocrats.

Mr Griffin has a record of funding public displays of dinosaurs and there is speculation he intends to loan Apex to a museum, though this will remain at his discretion.

Many developing countries including Brazil and China assert public ownership of all fossils on their territory, a reaction to early 20th century European expeditions that looted fossils for display back home, but in the US as in Britain fossils belong to whoever owns the land they are excavated from.