Among the real creatures on display is a skeleton of a pachycephalosaur dinosaur
Among the real creatures on display is a skeleton of a pachycephalosaur dinosaur AFP / Tolga Akmen

Sotheby's announced Tuesday that it will auction off a 76-million-year-old fossilized dinosaur skeleton that is nearly 10 feet in height and 22 feet in length.

This "Gorgosaurus," who is a relative of a Tyrannosaurus rex, has an estimated presale price of around $5 million to $8 million. It will also be the first-ever of its type able to be owned. The other discovered Gorgosaurus fossils are kept in museums.

“In my career, I have had the privilege of handling and selling many exceptional and unique objects, but few have the capacity to inspire wonder and capture imaginations quite like this unbelievable Gorgosaurus skeleton,” said Cassandra Hatton, Sotheby's global head of science and popular culture.

The Gorgosaurus dinosaur skeleton will be auctioned off on July 28, in New York at 10 a.m. ET. Its sale number is N10953.

The dinosaur's fossils were found in 2018 in the Judith River formation near Havre, Montana.

“This specimen, which was a very large, mature individual at the time of death, has a particularly well-preserved skull, including a left maxilla and an assortment of cranial bones. Crucially the specimen also contains the three major bones which create the orbit, the feature which distinguishes the Gorgosaurus from the T. rex,” Sotheby's said.

The Gorgosaurus was a large theropod type of dinosaur with a carnivorous diet. It lived during the late cretaceous period from between around 73-80 million years ago. They were found in the western parts of Canada and the U.S., according to the Natural History Museum.