See array of fossils for free at The Venetian

After millions of years of extinction, dinosaurs roam the Strip again.

Real dinosaurs, not the B-list entertainers who have long used Vegas to stage their comebacks. We're talking duckbilled dinosaurs. Giant sharks and the king of all dinosaurs, Tyrannosaurus rex.

The dinosaurs -- rather their fossils -- are on display in the space formerly occupied by the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum at The Venetian. They will be auctioned off Oct. 3 by Bonhams & Butterfields auction house. Until then, 50 lots of fossils will be on display for a public viewing free of charge.

The centerpiece of the temporary exhibit is the 66 million-year-old skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex named Samson. The 40-foot-long female skeleton contains 170 bones and is considered one of only three to have been unearthed with more than 50 percent of its bone count, says Thomas Lindgren, consulting co-director of natural history for the auction house.

It's expected to sell for millions, Lindgren says.

The last sale of a T. rex was in 1997, when the unassembled skeleton of Sue was sold for $8.3 million. Sue weighed six tons and measured 41 and a half feet long. Samson may garner more money, as the skeleton is assembled and ready to be installed, Lindgren says.

Samson was discovered in South Dakota and sat unassembled in a barn for several years, while the discoverer looked for a buyer, Lindgren says. The skeleton was a notable find because it's the first to have been found with an intact skull. Previous examples have all had crushed skulls, he adds. It also has skeletal features that suggest a new species of T. rex.

In life, Samson likely weighed 12,000 pounds, or six tons. Her cause of death is undetermined, but bite marks on the skeleton suggest she sustained injuries shortly before dying, Lindgren says.

Everything on display will be for sale, Lindgren says, adding that he hopes the eventual buyer of Samson is a scientific institution that wants to further its study of dinosaurs.

Among the other fossils are a fully mounted, 28-foot-long duckbilled dinosaur skeleton and a seven-foot-long fossil shark from the Permian period. A giant shark's jaws, eight-feet tall and 10-feet wide, are expected to fetch up to $1 million.

The viewing opens to the public Friday and closes Oct. 3.

Contact reporter Sonya Padgett at spadgett@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4564.