Allosaurus: 'Exceptionally rare' dinosaur skeleton expected to fetch up to £500,000 at auction fails to sell

The auction house said it would now listen to 'reasonable offers' for the specimen

Allosaurus last roamed the earth up to 155 million years ago (PA)

An “exceptionally rare” dinosaur skeleton expected to fetch up to £500,000 at auction failed to sell after bidding stopped short of its reserve price.

The near-complete juvenile Allosaurus, which took three years to excavate in America, was claimed to be the first predatory dinosaur skeleton to come up for public sale in Britain.

Summers Place Auctions, in Billingshurst, West Sussex, sold a Diplodocus to a Danish museum two years ago for £400,000 and hopes had been high that the Allosaurus, a relative of the Tyrannosaurus Rex, would fetch between £300,000 and £500,000.

But bidding stopped below the reserve price agreed with the seller. The auction house said it would now listen to “reasonable offers” for the specimen.