Ancient meteorite goes unsold in NY as dung sells

The two chunks of 130-million-year-old coprolite, otherwiseknown as fossilized dinosaur dung, fetched $960 (482 pounds) atBonhams in New York on Wednesday, the auction house said.

The Jurassic-era rocks were sold for more than double theirmaximum estimate, said spokeswoman Staci Smith.

A 4.5 billion-year-old meteorite, on which a Chinese deserthiker habitually ate lunch before he discovered it wasvaluable, failed to meet the minimum reserve however.

Bonhams had expected the space rock to sell for $2.25million to $2.75 million.

Smith said negotiations over the meteorite continued afterthe auction and that a deal could be struck in days.

The owner of the meteorite, Marvin Kilgore, the curator atthe University of Arizona's Southwest Meteorite Center, wasmystified by the sale of the fossilized dung which is much morecommon than rocks that have fallen from space.

"Some people want it on their shelves, I guess," he said.

The dung was bought by a phone bidder which the auctionhouse declined to identify.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner, editing by Sandra Maler)