Astro Gallery - New York Times

Astro Gallery of Gems bills itself as the world’s largest gem and mineral shop. Upstairs, you can browse the vault-size geodes and sapphires. But the basement — by appointment only — is where things take a turn for the Jurassic. This is where the president and chief executive Dennis Tanjeloff stores his back room full of prehistoric flex: a $125,000 Odontopteryx tilapia skeleton (since sold), trilobites big as house cats, meteorite slices and the kind of dino bones that end up in Gulf State palaces or private Colorado libraries.

It’s a celebrity obsession, too — he calls his buyers “grown-up boys” who never got over the idea that dinosaurs were real. Among the best-known fossil collectors: Brad Pitt, Nicolas Cage and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Mr. Tanjeloff is part dealer, part historian and wholly unbothered by those who disapprove of his trade. (Not everyone loves the idea of rare fossils going to private collectors instead of museums.) His current selection, which ranges from $24 for small ammonites to $95,000 for a Tyrannosaurus rex tibia, comes from old collections, private digs and other dealers. “You’re not hurting a thing,” he shrugs. “They’re already extinct.” 

Book ahead, ask for the fossil room and expect numbers that make you blink. If you don’t leave with an ancient jawbone, you’ll at least understand why some people feel compelled to try.