A 65-million-year-old dinosaur egg nest was sold for a record price of 419,750 U.S. dollars at an auction on Sunday.

The nest, which has the most raptor egg embryos ever offered at auction, was sold as part of a Natural History sale by Bonhams & Butterfields auction house.

The price for the museum-quality raptor nest and eggs, which were authenticated by paleontologists, was twice the expected 180,000 to 220,000 dollars, according to the auction house. A scientific paper on the nest is due out soon.

Also on Sunday, a collection of 31 gold nuggets comprising the "Golden Nugget" collection on display for nearly 30 years at the Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas brought in 227,250 dollars.

One bidder paid 117,250 dollars for a large three dimensional gold nugget from Western Australia. Another 14,340 dollars were paid for Velvet Malachite, the centerpiece of the velvet malachites in the Levi Smith Collection.

"We were pleased to offer such a strong selection of unique and rare examples of Earth's natural art," said Tom Lindgren, Bonhams & Butterfields consulting director of Natural History.

"The sale featured rare and unusual examples of the newest and the oldest collecting categories on earth -- stemming from noted institutional and private collections," he said.

Sunday's auction has so far raked in an estimated 1.75 million dollars.