Millions of years ago, Spike would have roamed what were — back then at least — the abundant wetlands and coastal plains of western North America.
Lately, however, a swanky showroom in central London has been its home.
"I'd never seen anything like it," says James Hyslop, the head of science and natural history at Christie's auction house.
"I knew instantly this was a dinosaur that we want to bring to auction and we want to do something special with it.
"It's exciting, it's fresh to market, it's exactly what people are looking for."
Spike — gender unknown — got its nickname because of its distinctive pointy skull. It goes under the hammer on Thursday, local time, with a guide price of 3 million pounds to 5 million pounds ($6 million to $10 million), although some say that's conservative.
"It could potentially fetch double the estimate or even a multiple," one industry insider told the ABC. "All it takes is two bidders with deep pockets who see the value of the specimen."
There are several things that make Spike, who was discovered in 2022 and is part of the caenagnathid family of dinosaurs, unique. It could even be a new species.
"Nothing like Spike has ever been seen before in the fossil record. The closest relative to it was only discovered 10 years ago," Mr Hyslop says.
"Some of its close cousins are described by only a single bone at times, which is incredible work that palaeontologists do to find a single fragment of jaw and describe an entire species that lived 68 million years ago.
"What we have here are a hundred fossil bones, making Spike one of the best of its kind in the world."
Spike is slightly bigger than an emu. The species would have been feathered, toothless and powerful. Spike was also one of the last dinosaurs, being dated to the period before an asteroid struck near what's now known as Mexico, triggering the catastrophic environmental changes that wiped them out.
"This creature could have run at about 40 miles an hour," Mr Hyslop says. "That's a few yards ahead of Usain Bolt in the 100 metres. If this thing is cross with you, you are not escaping. It's going to hunt you down."
This week, however, Spike is going to be what's getting chased.
The fossil trade is exploding around the world, with an increasing number of wealthy buyers keen to get their hands on a piece of prehistory.
Last year, Sotheby's auction house in New York City sold a stegosaurus skeleton, named Apex, for a record $US45 million ($63 million).
London's David Aaron gallery has been known for its sales of antiques and Islamic art for more than a century. For the past 10 years, though, it has been dealing in dinosaur fossils, too.
"The demand is growing exponentially," says Salomon Aaron, one of the organisation's directors.
"The trend is people want dinosaurs which are, I would say, more private-collector friendly. Size-wise, they can fit into a home."
That will likely make the more moderately proportioned Spike attractive, although Mr Aaron's gallery is not conducting that sale.
Private fossil trade booming despite ethical questions
The idea that significant specimens could be snapped up by the world's ultra-rich and, potentially, lost to science forever, has caused consternation among some palaeontologists.
While regulations differ between countries, exhuming and exporting dinosaurs like Spike — who was found on private land in the United States — is completely legal.
"There is no doubt that as a result of the private trade, there are dinosaurs which will go into private collections and may be lost to science or not put on public display," Mr Aaron says.
"Equally, if it were not for the private trade, many dinosaur fossils would never be discovered or would just waste away over time because of general decay or natural events."
Mr Aaron is proud of his gallery's approach to the delicate issue, saying he always offers his fossils to museums first.
If they're struggling to raise the funds to buy one, he has even found a workaround: using his extensive network of clients to purchase it for them.
Earlier this year, Mr Aaron used this model to ensure an enigmacursor — a new species — could be gifted to London's Natural History Museum (NHM).
"Along with that purchase was a significant amount of funds for research, so it's a complete win-win for everyone," he says.
Susannah Maidment, a dinosaur researcher at the NHM, has not seen Spike for herself.
"The information that they [Christie's] have put out is that it could be a new species," she says.
"It might be something that we as a museum would be really keen on purchasing or acquiring.
"But the problem with fossil auctions and particularly with dinosaur fossils is that the prices they tend to reach are way beyond the acquisition budgets of the vast majority of museums and certainly beyond us."
Despite that, Professor Maidment acknowledges the private fossil trade is not always a bad thing, particularly when it comes to inspiring amateurs to start digging and get involved in science.
"I think it would be really great if there was some sort of scheme where they [fossils] were offered for sale for a reasonable amount — not auction amounts — to museums, who would be given the opportunity to acquire them first," she says.
Spike has been on public display at Christie's for about a week and soon its next home will be revealed.
"Most dinosaurs that make big prices at auctions end up being seen next in museums," Mr Hyslop says.
"The people who collect these things want to share them with the world. They like the idea of people being able to access the specimens and study them.
"We've made spike available to the scientific community while they've been in our temporary custodianship, and I fully expect the next owner will feel the same way."
