Bare-bones bids drawn at fossil auction

The nearly complete skeleton of a duck-billed dinosaur, a horned dinosaur skull and prehistoric shark jaws were among the items that went unsold at a closely watched fossil auction.

In fact, the highest bid at the auction, organised by Guernsey's of New York, went for something that was not a fossil at all.

A skeleton of a humpback whale found in 1844 and once owned by showman P.T. Barnum fetched a telephone bid of $160,000. The estimated price had been $200,000 to $300,000.

Guernsey's had thought the duck-billed dinosaur might bring bids in the high six figures or more, and the horned dinosaur skull $150,000 to $200,000.

The auctioneer named a price of $500,000 for the shark jaws, but moved to the next item when no one expressed interest at $400,000.