Does The Rock Own A Real $31.8 Million 'Stan' T-Rex Skull Or A Cast?

It appears The Rock owns the world's most sought-after T-Rex skull that is considered to be the "most complete T-Rex skull ever found" after buying it at auction in 2020 for $31.8 million, according to Internet sleuths.

While it's not confirmed that The Rock's T-Rex skull is the real deal, the wrestling and acting legend talked glowingly about his skull while joining the Mannings during the Cardinals-Rams Wild Card game.

"I got a T-Rex skull," The Rock told Peyton and Eli. "That's Stan. So Stan is the most complete T-Rex skull ever found."

"It's pretty cool and badass, isn't it?"

But is it a cast or the real deal?

Internet sleuths went to work trying to figure out how The Rock got his hands on such a piece of history and they pinpointed a 2020 National Geographic story about the sale of 'Stan' skeleton at auction for $31.8 million to an anonymous buyer.

From Nat Geo's report:

On October 6, the London-based auction house Christie’s sold the T. rex for a record $31.8 million, the highest price ever paid at auction for a fossil. The previous record was set in 1997 with the sale of “Sue,” a largely complete T. rex dug up by the same South Dakota institute and eventually purchased by the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago for $8.36 million (equivalent to nearly $13.5 million today).

The day after Stan was sold, paleontologist Lindsay Zanno of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences described the sale price as “simply staggering.”

Paleontologists who talked to National Geographic called the sale price bordering on "absurdity" and that the funds used to purchase 'Stan' could have funded 80 full field expeditions per year "in perpetuity."

In the story, experts in the field shared concern over who had purchased 'Stan' and where the dinosaur skeleton would end up.

Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaur / via Getty

Stan's journey to the auction block began in 2015, according to Nat Geo, when a Black Hills Institute shareholder -- where Stan was on display -- sued the company. By 2018, a judge ruled that Stan had to be auctioned off in order to pay the shareholder his money. Then the historic sale happened in 2020 and it was unknown who had purchased the skeleton.

If you listen to The Rock very closely, it sure sounds like he owns the real thing and not some cast. National Geographic science writer Michael Greshko tweeted Monday night that he was reaching out to the WWE for confirmation that The Rock has the real deal.

"Not to overstate this, but if @TheRock really does own Stan the fossil (not a cast, as I and @DrShaena suspect), then this is easily one of the wildest ways Stan’s buyer could have been unmasked," Greshko wrote.

Or is this a mounted Stan skull that sells for $11,500 on the Black Hills Institute website? This is a mystery that only The Rock can solve at this point. The Internet detectives have two conclusions: it's either the $31.8M skeleton or it's a cast that rich people can purchase to use as a decoration around their house(s).