Christie's called off the auction of a tyrannosaurus rex skeleton days before it was to go under the hammer in Hong Kong after a US company raised doubts about parts of the skeleton.

Christie's said in a statement that the 1,400 kilogram (3,100lb) skeleton had been withdrawn from the auctions.

The specimen will be lent to a museum for display.

The man is thought to be an adult male that lived about 67 million years ago. The auction would have followed the sale of the T rex skeleton named "Stan" by Christie's.

The Field Museum in Chicago is one of the largest natural history museums in the world. The casts of bones are used to complete the skeleton. The number of bones in a T rex is estimated by the field museum

The original materials said about 80 of the bones were new.

Peter Larson, the president of the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research in the US, told the New York Times that parts of the Chinese city looked like Stan.

The intellectual property rights to Stan are held by the Black Hills Institute.

The owner of the skeleton used bones from a Stan replica to complete it, according to the man. Edward Lewine told the newspaper that Christie's believed that he would benefit from further study.

The trade of such skeletons has raked in tens of millions of dollars in recent years, but experts say it's harmful to science as the auctions could put them in private hands.