A triceratops skeleton is expected to fetch 500,000 euros at an upcoming Christie’s auction in Paris, where giant shark teeth and a sabre-toothed tiger skull are also up for bids.

The skeleton of the three-horned dinosaur, from a private European collection, is the highlight of the April 16 auction. It will mark the first time that such a dinosaur specimen goes up for public sale since a T-Rex called “Sue” was sold in New York in October 1997.

The four-legged triceratops, which dates back between 65 and 67 million years, measures 7.5 metres in length and bears a large bony frill and three horns.

In all, 150 items from natural history collections — fossils, skeletons and minerals — valued at some 1.6 million euros will be up for auction.

A sabre-toothed tiger cranium is expected to fetch up to 45,000 euros, while the fossilized giant shark teeth have been valued at up to 4,000 euros.

Christie’s said it hoped to build on the success of last year’s paleontology auction that brought in more than one million euros and established 12 world records.Also up for bids will be a tyrannosaurus egg, mineralized in agate, valued at between 20,000 and 25,000 euros; and an apatosaurus dinosaur tibia from the Jurassic Period, which is expected to raise up to 30,000 euros.

A private German museum is offering a well-conserved cranium of an edmontosaurus, a duck-beaked dinosaur, estimated at between 70,000 and 80,000 euros.Mineral specimens are also expected to draw interest, including six Condor agates and a 400-kilo copper leaf discovered in the US state of Michigan, which is estimated at between 30,000 and 35,000 euros.