Dwayne Johnson fans are questioning whether he splashed out a whopping $30 million (£22m) on a T-Rex skull spotted in his home.
The former WWE star appeared on the Manningcast, where fans were able to see the giant skull tucked away in the background.
When asked by Eli Manning about the giant fossil, Johnson explained: “I got a T-Rex skull. Yes, that’s Stan.
"As a matter of fact, so Stan is the most complete T-Rex skull ever found by a young paleontologist and his name was Stan, so this T-Rex head was named after him.”
“Pretty cool and badass isn’t it.”
It sure is and as well as cool and badass, the name ‘Stan’ is adorable for a T-Rex, so add that to the list.
After he spoke about Stan, social media users went into overdrive with some questioning whether he had gone ahead and bought the original Stan fossil that was sold for an eye-watering $31.8 million (£23.4m) at auction in October 2020.
According to the National Geographic, an anonymous bidder snapped up the fossil in October 2020 after it was flogged at fancy London auction house Christie’s.
Its sky-high sale price was the highest ever paid at auction for a fossil, smashing the old record of the 1997 sale of complete T-Rex ‘Sue’ that sold for $8.36 million (£6.15m), which is equivalent to nearly $13.5 million (£9.9m) today, according to National Geographic.
At the time, one paleontologist said: “That’s an astronomical price that borders on absurdity, based on my knowledge of the market.
“If this kind of money [were] invested properly, it could easily fund 15 permanent dinosaur research positions, or about 80 full field expeditions per year, in perpetuity.”
Now, we all know Johnson has plenty of cash to spend - having previously been the highest grossing actor in Hollywood.
So has The Rock spent millions on a very expensive fossil? Well, maybe not - because as another social media sleuth discovered, you can actually get yourself a Stan replica for a much more reasonable (but still way out of my price range) $11,500 (£8,400).
Also, the Stan that sold was ‘mostly complete’ and measured 39ft-long, so unless he removed the skull and did away with the rest of the bones it seems fairly unlikely that The Rock is our ‘anonymous bidder’.
Featured Image Credit: ManningcastTopics: Dwayne Johnson, Celebrity
Claire Reid