IF you’re looking for something unique to brighten up your living room, you might opt for a statement rug or even consider embracing the current craze for taxidermy.

    But anyone making a purchase from the Evolution sale at Summers Place Auctions in Billinghurst, West Sussex this week, will need to have a considerable budget if they’re hoping to snap up a stuffed creature or an ancient artifact.

    The natural history collection of fossils, minerals and taxidermy is expected to fetch hundreds of thousands when it goes on sale tomorrow.

    The star of the sale is “Little Al,” the rare skeleton of a juvenile Allosaurus dinosaur, estimated to be 150 to 155 million years old.

    Discovered in Wyoming, U.S., it’s one of the most complete dinosaur skeletons ever found.

    More thank 95 percent of the skeleton is intact, and it’s expected to fetch up to £500,000 (US$763,602) at auction this week.

    The skeleton of an ice age cave bear found in Romania will also be on offer. Although it’s expected to sell for a more modest sum of £20,000.

    Another rare item is the intact egg of the legendary elephant bird of Madagascar.

    They produced the largest of all known eggs, even bigger than any dinosaur eggs that have been discovered.

    Native people once used them as water containers because of their huge size.

    The last of the birds died out around the 16th century, and very few of the eggs have survived intact.

    This specimen is predicted to sell for up to £50,000.

    Also now extinct is the passenger pigeon. It was at one point probably the most numerous bird on the planet with a population estimated in the billions.

    Destruction of the environment that the bird needed to survive and the slaughter of millions resulted in the species being completely wiped out.

    The very last one died in a cage at the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914, and all that remains of the species is a handful of stuffed examples that have survived from 18th century taxidermy collections.

    Priced at £12,000, a taxidermied male pigeon is one of the more expensive items in the sale relative to its size, because of its rarity. (SD-Agencies)