The fortunes to be found in fossils

An auction house in France stoked controversy last month with the sale of a fossilised dinosaur skeleton. Chris Carter reports.

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An incredibly rare Germanodactylus cristatus

"This is the real Jurassic Park," says James Hyslop of Christie's in the auction house's online magazine. He was talking about two pterosaur skeletons ahead of their sale on 10 July in London. The first is a Rhamphorhynchus muensteri, a light-bodied "winged lizard" ("pterosaur" in the Greek) that flew above modern-day Solnhofen in Bavaria until one day 150 million years ago, it plunged into the lagoons and was immaculately preserved in fossil form. It is valued at £60,000 to £90,000.

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Chris Carter
Wealth Editor, MoneyWeek

Chris Carter spent three glorious years reading English literature on the beautiful Welsh coast at Aberystwyth University. Graduating in 2005, he left for the University of York to specialise in Renaissance literature for his MA, before returning to his native Twickenham, in southwest London. He joined a Richmond-based recruitment company, where he worked with several clients, including the Queen’s bank, Coutts, as well as the super luxury, Dorchester-owned Coworth Park country house hotel, near Ascot in Berkshire.

Then, in 2011, Chris joined MoneyWeek. Initially working as part of the website production team, Chris soon rose to the lofty heights of wealth editor, overseeing MoneyWeek’s Spending It lifestyle section. Chris travels the globe in pursuit of his work, soaking up the local culture and sampling the very finest in cuisine, hotels and resorts for the magazine’s discerning readership. He also enjoys writing his fortnightly page on collectables, delving into the fascinating world of auctions and art, classic cars, coins, watches, wine and whisky investing.

You can follow Chris on Instagram.