The skeleton of an extremely rare form of dinosaur has been sold for more than €2m (£1.8m) at the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

The bones of what scientists believe may be a new species of the carnivorous allosaurus were discovered during a dig in Wyoming, US, in 2013.

The 150m-year-old skeleton, which is 70% intact, was bought on Monday by an unnamed French art collector, who said the specimen would be loaned to a museum.

The dinosaur, which would have been more than nine metres (30ft) long and 2.6 metres high, lived during the late Jurassic period, said Eric Mickeler, a paleontologist who advises Aguttes auction house. He said it was the only one of its species to have been discovered.

A dinosaur expert, Eric Geneste, had previously said it was impossible to classify the skeleton as an allosaurus because it was more robust, with longer shoulder blades and a different number of teeth.

“There are as many differences between it and an allosaurus as between a human and a gorilla,” he said.

Japanese and Swedish telephone bidders also tried to buy the bones, pushing the bidding above the €1.8m estimate.

In 2016, the French auction house sold an allosaurus, called Kan, for €1.1m.

Mickeler said: “Herbivores do not quite excite businessmen who buy dinosaurs the same way as carnivores do. They want to buy carnivores like themselves.”

Part of the proceeds of the sale of Kan, which was bought by a British collector, will go to towards funding further archaeological digs.