The fossil, named Trey, will be open for bidding from March 17 to 31 on Joopiter, an online auction platform founded by Grammy-winning artist and producer Pharrell Williams.
It has a pre-auction estimate of 4.5 million dollars (£3.3 million) to 5.5 million dollars (£4.1 million).
Dating back more than 66 million years to the late Cretaceous period, Trey was discovered near Lusk, Wyoming, in the US, in 1993 by Lee Campbell and the late Allen Graffham, a commercial palaeontologist who made numerous significant finds.
The skeleton is named Trey (Joopiter/AP)
The 17ft herbivore greeted visitors at the 1995 grand opening of the Wyoming Dinosaur Centre in Thermopolis, and remained there on loan until 2023.
Having been recently sold in a private transaction, it is now in Singapore, where it is available for private viewings to the end of March, Joopiter said.
Trey “has this cultural aspect that a lot of fossils that go to auction these days just simply don’t have”, said palaeontologist Andre LuJan, who worked with Joopiter to prepare the fossil for auction.
“This one is connected to people and undoubtedly has inspired young children who’ve seen it to pursue a career in palaeontology.”
Once the domain of museums and universities, dinosaur fossils have become increasingly popular investments.
In 2024, the remains of Apex the stegosaurus went for 44.6 million dollars (£33.2 million) at auction, shattering the previous record of 31.8 million dollars (£23.7 million) paid in 2020 for Stan, a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton.
The skeleton was found in 1993 (Joopiter/AP)
In a sign that the dinosaur fossil market remains strong, a rare young dinosaur skeleton blew past its four million to six million dollars (£2.98 million to £4.48 million) Sotheby’s pre-auction estimate in July and ended up fetching more than 30 million dollars (£22.3 million) in a bidding frenzy, including fees and costs.
Caitlin Donovan, Joopiter’s global head of sales, said the interest reflects a shift away from traditional categories like old master paintings and towards objects that have “cultural resonance”.
“(Dinosaurs) have always captivated our imagination and people are now starting to see the value in investing in these as assets,” Mr LuJan said.
But the hot market has some palaeontologists concerned that important specimens could disappear into private collections, depriving scientists of important research opportunities.
Mr LuJan emphasised that Trey has always been privately owned, and he hopes it will end up in a museum, just like Apex, which is now on display at New York’s American Museum of Natural History, after its buyer signed a long-term loan agreement allowing scientists to study it.