Massive 55.16-Troy Ounce ‘Prairie Dog’ Among Gold Nuggets to Shine at Heritage’s April 29 Nature & Science Auction

Highlights also include lunar and Martian meteorites, fossils, artifacts from paleontology pioneers, gemstones, lapidary art and more DOWNLOAD DIGITAL PRESS KIT DALLAS, Texas (April 17, 2026) — An enormous Australian Gold nugget nicknamed “Prairie Dog” for its resemblance to the silhouette of one of the burrowing rodents in sentinel posture will pop its head up at Heritage’s April 29 Nature & Science Signature® Auction as one of two dozen Gold specimens that include two other zoomorphic nuggets dubbed “The Bunny” and “The Dog.” Specimens originate from all around the globe and range in mass from the Prairie Dog’s 1,715.75 grams (55.16 troy ounces) to another Australian nugget’s 20.1 grams (0.65 troy ounce). They include collections such as a set of nine from Tanzania totaling 1,042.65 grams (33.52 troy ounces) as well as single items: a beautifully latticed 150.6-gram (4.84-troy ounce) crystalized Gold on Quartz specimen from Tuolumne County, California, nuggets smoothed by prolonged water wear such as this 384.28-gram (12.35-troy ounce) piece from Papua New Guinea and rocky ribbons of Gold meandering in rivulets that vividly contrast their grayish-white quartz matrix, among others. Natural Gold specimens aren’t the only treasures that will cross the block at the Nature & Science Auction, of course. “This event offers a splendid array of meteorites, gemstones, lapidary art and relics spanning the ages and originating from all over the world — and even from the Moon, Mars and beyond,” says Craig Kissick, Heritage’s Vice President of Nature & Science. NASA’s Artemis II mission and its successful flyby of the Moon have renewed interest in objects related to Earth’s natural satellite. Lunar meteorites — natural fragments of the Moon that have traveled roughly 238,900 miles to Earth — offer an incredibly rare opportunity to collectors. The April 29 auction includes 16 lots featuring lunar meteorite masses and slices and even jewelry incorporating lunar meteorite material. Among the lunar lots is Oued El Hamim 001 (OEH 001), an officially classified 608.73-gram lunar fragmental breccia recovered in Ajdabiya, Libya, and recognized in the Meteoritical Bulletin as one of only 48 known specimens. Further, it could contain evidence of water on the Moon, which would represent a major shift in current understanding of its composition. “This could be highly significant because it is aqueous-altered,” Kissick says. “That may have been caused by impact-related processes on Earth, or it could have been caused by ancient lunar volcanic activity.” A matched pair of pieces from another lunar meteorite, NWA 16683, is an intriguing specimen. Classified as troctolitic anorthosite, a lithology associated with the deep crust of the Moon, the sliced pair weighs a combined 689 grams and presents complementary perspectives of this very special extraterrestrial rock. The main mass of the Martian meteorite NWA 17754, representing a newly classified basaltic shergottite recovered in Algeria in 2025, is a souvenir from even deeper into space. It’s one of eight lots featuring Martian meteorite masses, slices or cuts. Space enthusiasts will also note material from the “HED Clan” — howardites, eucrites and diogenites — widely believed to originate from asteroid 4 Vesta. These rare specimens bridge the gap between lunar and deeper-space material. A 180.7-gram piece of the 2019 Viñales meteorite that exploded with an estimated force of 1.5 kilotons over Cuba in 2019 struck a yucca plant upon landing, and the lot includes a scorched piece of the branch it impacted. Much further back in history was the Campo del Cielo fall in Argentina, first documented by Spanish explorers in 1576 and known long before that by the indigenous people of the area. This auction includes a massive, museum-worthy 86.63-kilogram iron meteorite from that fall. The auction is replete with fossils. An incredible fossilized rhinoceros skull with visible predatory bite marks on the top tells the story of a prehistoric clash — whether the battle was the rhino’s last or it survived the encounter is up to one’s imagination. An entire composited leg bone assembly from an Allosaurus dating to the Jurassic, a spinosaurid “killing claw” measuring more than 10 inches (25 cm) along its outer curve and an enormous tooth from a Tyrannosaurus rex measuring 4.6 inches (11.7 cm) in length are three other dramatic specimens in the auction. A polished mounted woolly mammoth tusk with exceptional blue colors would make a gorgeous centerpiece for any collection, as would a large fossilized land tortoise of the Testudo variety from the White River Badlands or a museum-quality fully articulated skeleton of a Daphoenus felinus, a unique Oligocene carnivorous mammal often called “bear-dog” despite having no relation to either bears or dogs. A special selection of items related to the “Bone Wars” — dramatic rivalries in paleontology in the formative years of the science — bring to life the personalities and accomplishments of legendary 19th century scientists. Among those items are a first-edition copy of the groundbreaking Dinocerata: An Extinct Order of Gigantic Mammals signed by its author, Othniel Charles Marsh, and a lithographic proof plate depicting Dinoceras mirabile, signed by Marsh and John Wesley Powell, director of the U.S. Geological Survey. Edward Drinker Cope is renowned for identifying 56 species of dinosaur. Later in his career, he served as President of the Sierra Apache Mining Company. This well-preserved 1883 stock certificate retains its stamps and embossed seal as well as signatures, one of them Cope’s. Across the pond, British paleontologist Harry Govier Seeley was best known for his 1887 division of dinosaurs into the two great orders Saurischia (“lizard-hipped”) and Ornithischia (“bird-hipped”). Here, he is represented by a brass surveyor’s compass in a wooden box. Sir Richard Owen, who coined the term Dinosauria in 1842, is the subject of a two-item lot comprising a rare autographed letter paired with a period hand-colored chromolithographic portrait of Owen by Carlo Pellegrini. An especially large selection of gemstones will be in play, including extraordinary individual stones like a 510.44-carat Kunzite, a 2.97-carat Colombian Emerald and a 34.64-carat Zircon as well as parures of Opals and Blue Topaz. Other highlights among the 280 lots include fine lapidary art such as a striking Koroit Boulder Opal Box and a copy of the 1950 Dover edition of Georgius Agricola’s metallurgy treatise De Re Metallica, signed and inscribed by Herbert Clark Hoover, who translated it from the original Latin before becoming president of the United States. Images and information about all lots in the auction can be found at HA.com/8248. Heritage Auctions is the largest fine art and collectibles auction house founded in the United States, and the world's largest collectibles auctioneer. Heritage maintains offices in New York, Dallas, Beverly Hills, Chicago, Palm Beach, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Hong Kong and Tokyo. Heritage also enjoys the highest Online traffic and dollar volume of any auction house on earth (source: SimilarWeb and Hiscox Report). The Internet's most popular auction-house website, HA.com, has more than 2 million registered bidder-members and searchable free archives of 7,000,000 past auction records with prices realized, descriptions and enlargeable photos. Reproduction rights routinely granted to media for photo credit. For breaking stories, follow us: HA.com/Facebook and HA.com/Twitter . Link to this release or view prior press releases . Hi-Res images available: Jesse Hughey, Public Relations Specialist 214-409-1376; JesseH@HA.com