The skeleton of a 155 million-year-old diplodocus — discovered in the eastern Bighorn Mountains in 2012 — is set to go up for auction in Paris on Thursday.

Aguttes Auctions expects the dinosaur to fetch more than $2.5 million, saying it appears to be a new species and contains rare skin impressions. Nicknamed “Skinny,” the skeleton of the diplodocus relative is 90 percent complete and more than 42 feet long.

Diplodocuses are believed to have walked the earth in the Late Jurassic epoch of the Jurassic Period, some 155-145 million years ago. The vegetarians weighed in at around 44,000 pounds, using a very long neck and rows of comb-like teeth to feed on vegetation high and low.

Aguttes Auctions special adviser Eric Mickeler said Skinny’s buyer could suggest a name for this new species. He noted that a related dino — a “Diplodocus carnegii” — was named for benefactor Andrew Carnegie after being discovered in an area north of Medicine Bow in 1899. (That famed specimen is
known as “Dippy.”)

As for why someone would purchase a dinosaur, Mickeler said they are “powerful symbols which act as memento mori [Latin for, ‘remember you will die’] and remind us of the outcome of all species over the ages.”

“Their sheer size awes people, they are immense and that is part of their fascination for collectors. Buyers look for big impressive aesthetically attractive and well-preserved examples,” he said. “It is also a case of supply and demand. There are very few found and so prices grow because there is a strong demand for them.”

Whether there will be enough demand to support a $2.5 million price remains to be seen.

Media reports indicate that a different diplodocus skeleton — found near Ten Sleep in 2009 — fetched around $650,000 at a 2013 auction in England. Known as Misty, it was purchased for the Natural History Museum of Denmark.

To drum up interest in Skinny, the dinosaur was put on display at London’s Heathrow Airport in April and May. The auction house is also trying to entice American buyers, suggesting in a news release that the specimen could come “home.”

“The USA don’t have a skeleton like this because it is a completely new species,” Mickeler said, adding, “Thus, there is a great incentive for an American buyer to secure it ... and put it on display at a leading American museum for public viewing and further scientific study.”

The skeleton has been mounted to a stainless steel structure made by Paleomoove Laboratory, which will allow the buyer to reposition the diplodocus into a slightly different stance. According to Aguttes, the specimen is “presented in a revolutionary way as a contemporary work of art, but respects all the scientific criteria of preparation and reconstruction.”

For more information on the auction, visit the Aguttes site at www.bit.ly/2K1aQoK.

(CJ Baker contributed reporting.)